MIC president G Palanivel and four others have filed an application for a stay of the High Court ruling which upheld a directive by the Registrar of Societies (ROS) for the party to hold fresh elections.

Senior federal counsel Amarjeet Singh told the media today that the court fixed July 10 for hearing of the stay application before High Court Judge Asmabi Mohamad.

They filed the stay application on June 19, three days after filing an appeal at the Court of Appeal against the High Court ruling.

On June 15, Asmabi rejected their judicial review applications and held that the ROS only gave its opinion that the party had to settle its dispute, but the suggestion to hold fresh elections to resolve the party’s problems came from Palanivel.

Asmabi said Palanivel, in a letter dated Feb 5, 2015, had agreed to settle the party’s problems by holding fresh elections at all branches and divisions, including for the post of president.  

The five had filed two separate applications for judicial review to challenge the ROS’s directive for the party to hold fresh elections.

The first application was filed on Feb 23 by MIC central working committee member AK Ramalingam, 47, who named the ROS and its director-general Mohammad Razin Abdullah as respondents.

The second application was filed on Feb 24 by Palanivel, MIC vice-presidents S Sothinathan and S Balakrishnan, and former MIC secretary-general A Prakash Rao.

- Bernama