MIC president G Palanivel announced today the suspension with immediate effect his deputy Dr S Subramaniam and one of the party's vice-presidents, M Saravanan.

Also suspended were 12 other office-bearers all of whom he accused of going ahead with meeting of the party's interim CWC despite being ordered by him to cancel it.

Those suspended are Subramaniam, Saravanan, SK Devamany, N Rawisandran, R Ganesan, M Davendran, KRA Naidu, VM Panjamothy, P Manivasagam, S Ananthan, M Mathuraiveran, M Asojan, P Shanmugan and Mohana Muniandy.

Subramaniam ( photo ) is health minister while Saravanan is deputy minister for youth and sports. Devamany is the Perak state legislative assembly speaker.

In a press statement today, Palanivel said he had yesterday issued a memo to all party CWC members and other leaders to cancel the meeting of the interim CWC.

"Despite my said memo, these individuals did not cancel the scheduled meeting.

"It is beyond doubt that the acts of these individuals are clearly detrimental to the interests of the MIC. By virtue of the powers vested in me as president, I have suspended their membership for 12 months, with immediate effect.

Bernama yesterday reported Palanivel as saying stern action would be taken against those parties responsible in calling and attending a party central (CWC) meeting today.

"It has been brought to my attention that a purported notice of emergency meeting of the interim MIC CWC, dated June 15, has been issued purportedly by the elected members of the CWC term 2009-2013.

"The meeting is fixed for tomorrow at 12.30pm. Therefore, the purported notice and any meeting held pursuant to such notice shall be deemed illegal, null and void. Any other meeting similarly called shall also be invalid," the embattled MIC president said yesterday.

Party elections crisis

This latest saga of the troubled BN component party comes amid the dismissal by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur yesterday of two judicial review applications filed by Palanivel and four others to quash the 'directive' of the Registrar of Societies (RoS) ordering the party to hold fresh elections.

Palanivel said he would file for an order of stay and that any meeting of the party CWC, be it by the one convened in 2009 or 2013, could only be called by him as the party president.

"I will direct the secretary-general to issue the appropriate notice for the CWC meeting in accordance to the MIC constitution," Palanivel ( photo ) added.

The MIC internal crisis started following the election of three vice-presidents and 23 central working committee members in 2013, at the party's annual general meeting.

The election, after widespread allegations of malpractice, was declared null and void by the RoS via a directive on Dec 5, 2014.

Palanivel and his supporters then took the RoS to court to try and reverse its fresh elections order while those against the president filed orders to have the RoS directive carried out.