With the annual Then India Sanmarga Ikya Sangam (TISI) 2023 convention set to take place this long weekend, the High Court in Lautoka has ruled, the national body being run by an interim committee headed by former minister Parveen Bala (Kumar) has no powers to dismiss or terminate anybody from holding a position in the organisation until it holds the annual general meeting ordered by the Fiji Court of Appeal on March 4, 2022.
Justice Lyone Seneviratne said a decision made by the TISI interim committee on March 11, to relieve Sheshant Kumar from the position of president of Then India Valibar (Youth Wing), was a breach of the Memorandum and Articles of Association of TISI.
The judge noted the interim committee had subsequently appointed a Deepesh Goundar as the acting president of Then India Valibar. Justice Seneviratne said the Court of Appeal had ruled on March 4, 2022 that the interim committee appointed by the members in May 2016 was allowed to administer the affairs until, and with a view, to holding an AGM and elections.
“Although the Court of Appeal ordered to hold the election as expeditiously as possible the interim committee had not taken any step for one year.
“The defendants (Parveen Bala, Yogeshwar Krishna, Dorsamy Naidu), who are responsible in holding the election as ordered by the Court of Appeal, have failed to give any reason as to why they could not conduct the election for such a long time.
“The Court of Appeal in judgment has not specified a specific period within which the election should be held.
“However, in my view the intention of the Court of Appeal in making such an order was to direct the interim committee to conduct the election without further delay with which the interim committee has failed to comply.”
Police are to help in the enforcement of the court orders. Justice Seneviratne also ordered Messrs Bala, Krishna and Naidu to pay $1000 in costs to Mr Kumar, who was represented in court by Wasu Pillai of Gordon and Company.
