The Registrar of Societies had passed an order on Wednesday suspending the elections to the South Indian Film Artistes’ Association, popularly known as Nadigar Sangam, while two different proceedings, one civil and another criminal, related to the polls were pending in the Madras High Court.
It was A. Elumalai of Teynampet, a member of the association, who had initially filed a civil suit in the High Court early this month questioning the authority of the incumbent office-bearers to call for the election. He had urged the court to appoint an adhoc committee to administer the association and conduct the elections.
The plaintiff accused the incumbent office-bearers of continuing in the posts illegally despite the expiry of their tenure. Alleging that they were acting as per their whims and fancies, he claimed that they had demoted many performing artistes to the non-performing artistes category and manipulated the voters list.
When the case was heard by Justice R. Subramanian on June 10, the plaintiff’s counsel insisted on summoning the Registrar and seeking an explanation regarding the validity of the electoral list. However, the judge refused to pass any such order and simply directed Nadigar Sangam counsel Krishna Ravindran to clarify certain doubts by Wednesday (June 19).
In the meantime, the Nadigar Sangam filed a criminal original petition before Justice N. Anand Venkatesh and sought a direction to the Greater Chennai police to provide adequate protection for the election.
Disturbance to public
When this petition came up for hearing on Tuesday, the judge was told that actor S.Ve.Shekher had already booked the college auditorium for staging his play Alwaah on Sunday. The police also claimed that holding the elections at the college would cause disturbance to the public. Hence, the judge directed the association to select an alternative location and inform the court by Wednesday. However, by then the Registrar had suspended the elections indefinitely. Justice Venkatesh then adjourned the hearing on the plea for police protection by two weeks.
Simultaneously, Justice Subramanian adjourned the hearing on the civil proceedings to Thursday.
