RoS: Palanivel no longer an MIC member (Updated)

KUALA LUMPUR: The Registrar of Societies (RoS) has declared that Datuk Seri G. Palanivel is no longer an MIC member, and announced Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam as the acting president.
Subramaniam said in a press statement today the RoS has recognised that party chief Palanivel is no longer a member, pursuant to Article 91 of the party constitution, which reads: “Every member shall be bound by the decision of the Central Working Committee in matters relating to his rights, obligations, duties and privileges as a member of the Congress. If he resorts to court proceedings in respect of his rights, obligations, duties and privileges or on behalf of any other member or in respect of the rendering or meaning of the provisions of this Constitution without first referring to the CWC or in violation of any decision or directive of the CWC, he shall ipso facto cease to be a member of the Congress and shall not be entitled to exercise any of the rights of a member.”
Subramaniam said the RoS letter was addressed to the central working committee (CWC) elected in 2009.
“Consequent to this, I will function in the capacity of acting president to lead the CWC 2009 to conduct the re-elections of the MIC as per the RoS decision,” Subramaniam said.
Palanivel, who was elected party president in 2013, had earlier challenged the RoS directive to hold the 2013 CEC election again.
Subramaniam’s faction had held a gathering on Sunday where they stripped Palanivel and four others who took the RoS to court, of their membership.
A senior member of MIC said: “With this latest development, Palanivel will also have to soon give up his post as a cabinet minister.”
Subramaniam and Palanivel have been in a dispute over MIC’s leadership after contentious party elections in November 2013, the results of which RoS nullified and ordered re-elections.
Palanivel and four others in the party, who had taken legal action against the RoS, today failed to obtain an interim stay against a High Court ruling which upheld RoS’s directive for re-elections.
The High Court last week ruled that RoS had acted reasonably in deciding that MIC should conduct re-elections. Palanivel has since filed an appeal to the Court of Appeal.
Subramaniam also said the RoS has given MIC an extension until October to hold re-elections.
Meanwhile, Palanivel, who today went ahead to conduct a CWC meeting, announced that the leaders who took the matter to court remain as party members as the meeting had passed a resolution that Article 91 does not apply in this case.
“I will proceed with the election. I have informed Najib (Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak),” he said.
A total of 19 of the 23 elected members of the CWC attended today’s meeting, together with nine appointed members.
The embattled president called for the meeting at a hotel in Putrajaya, two days after he met Najib in a closed-door meeting.
Palanivel had called the meeting with the 2009 CWC – the first time he recognised the older CWC, after insisting for almost a year that the 2013 CWC, which the RoS deemed as having been elected amidst irregularities, was the rightful leading body of the party.