KUALA LUMPUR: MIC president Datuk Seri G. Palanivel has threatened to take the Registrar of Societies (RoS) to court over its handling of the party election crisis which he claimed was “unlawful and prejudicial”.
In a new twist to the MIC troubles, Palanivel demanded that the RoS withdraw all its directives to the party over the disputed 2013 polls and accept his proposals to resolve the problems, which have crippled the Barisan Nasional component party.
“The continuous unlawful conduct of the RoS makes it impossible to resolve the issues amicably.
“I am left with no choice but for MIC to obtain justice from the courts against the grave injustice inflicted by the RoS, with blatant disregard for the law,” Palanivel told a press conference here.
To a repeated question of whether the Prime Minister, as the chairman of Barisan, had been notified of his intention to pursue legal action, Palanivel answered: “Yes, yes.”
On his part, Barisan chairman Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said he would meet MIC leaders for the second time, either today, tomorrow or Tuesday.
Najib had stepped in an earlier meeting on Feb 4 but this failed to resolve the party’s imbroglio.
Palanivel, who read from a prepared statement at the media conference, demanded that the RoS withdraw all its letters to the party including those issued on Dec 5, 2014, Dec 31, 2014, and Feb 5, 2015, before 5pm on Tuesday or face legal action.
Palanivel said he had tried to compromise with the RoS “as much as possible” out of respect for the intervention of Najib, his deputy Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Barisan secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor and Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
He claimed that the RoS had given out “unlawful and invalid directives” in its letters and this had caused complete chaos in the MIC administration from the national level down to the state liaison committee.
Palanivel also blamed unnamed individuals for making “untrue allegations” and giving “misinformation” to the media that further plunged MIC into chaos.
He described as “illegal” a meeting by the 2009 CWC that was held at the MIC headquarters on Friday.
“The meeting cannot proceed in my absence as only I am empowered under the MIC constitution to chair all meetings unless I delegate the same to anyone else including the deputy president,” he said.
Palanivel said the RoS should have not sat in the meeting as it was “improper” to do so.
When asked how the legal action would affect the proposed fresh polls, Palanivel said MIC would have to wait for the outcome of the ultimatum on Tuesday.
