MIC president S Subramaniam has reiterated the party is ready to go to court to face allegations of “corruption” by those seeking to challenge his presidency in favour of former president G Palanivel.

The Star quoted Subramaniam insisting the Registrar of Societies (ROS) has recognised him as the lawful party president based on facts obtained after thorough investigations.

“As far as I am concerned, the community comes first. Others started it (the allegations) so we are forced to face it,” Subramaniam reportedly said after chairing the party's central working committee meeting (CWC) yesterday.

On Feb 5 former MIC treasurer-general R Ramanan and seven others filed a case at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur to expose how Subramaniam had allegedly “misled” ROS officers into recognising his faction as the rightful party leadership.

According to The Star, the other defendants reportedly include former MIC strategic director AK Ramalingam, S Vigneswaran, Jaspal Singh, T Mohan, A Sakthivel, A Vasanthi, ROS director-general Mohammad Razin Abdullah and one Akmal Yahya.

In a statement signed as the purported party secretary-general of Palanivel’s faction, Ramalingam yesterday claimed Subramaniam’s supposed “silence” over the legal suit is fuelling more doubt over his innocence in the allegations raised.

The re-election for all posts in MIC was held after the ROS issued a directive stating that it did not recognise the party's 2013 election results, because of complaints on discrepancies during the elections.

The re-election was held last Nov 6 and won by Subramaniam's camp.

Lawsuits filed by those from Palanivel's faction to try and stop the re-election were also reportedly dismissed.