Claiming that the Registrar of Societies has no role to adjudicate upon the membership of South Indian Artistes’ Association (popularly known as Nadigar Sangam), the latter has filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court challenging the Registrar’s order suspending the elections to the association indefinitely.
The petition has been listed for admission before Justice P.D. Audikesavalu on Friday. Filing an affidavit through its counsel Krishna Ravindran, the association, represented by its general secretary Vishal Krishna, also prayed for an interim stay on the operation of the order passed by the Registrar on Wednesday. The association accused the Registrar of having stalled the election scheduled to be held on Sunday though he had not been conferred with such powers under Section 36(1) of the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act of 1975. It alleged that the officer had acted arbitrarily and with a mala fide intention.
Stating that there were 3,171 eligible voters in the association, Mr. Krisha said that a big chunck of 1,045 votes would get polled only through postal ballots. Though one of the members, A. Elumalai, had filed a civil suit alleging discrepancies in the electoral list, he could not obtain any interim order from the court.
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About 62 members complained to the Registrar about removal of their names from the list and the association explained that 44 of them were shifted from the category of professional artistes to the category of non-professional artists, four had been suspended due to disciplinary action and the rest of the 13 were eligible to vote.
Despite the explanation, the Registrar suspended the election on the grounds that he required time to inquire into the issue. The association said the officer should have kept his hands off the issue since the election had already been notified.