The Registrar of Societies (ROS) has recognised that G Palanivel is no longer a member of MIC and that Dr S Subramaniam is the party's new acting president.

This is stated in a letter from registrar Muhammad Razin Abdullah to the party's central working committee (CWC) that was elected in 2009, which ROS recognises as the party's rightful office-bearers.

The letter also states that Subramaniam has the mandate to lead the CWC in conduting a re-election of the party leadership.

Palanivel, who was elected party president in 2013, had mounted a legal challenge against a ROS directive to hold the 2013 CEC election again.

This followed complaints from some party members that there were irregularities during the election held in December 2013.

Article 91 of the MIC constitution stipulates that any member who takes party matters to court will automatically lose their party membership.

Palanivel's legal challenge was unsuccessful and the court also denied his application for a stay on the execution of its decision.

The latest correspondence by the ROS means that Palanivel will soon have to step down as a minister in the Prime Minister's Department, since his appointment is based on his membership in MIC, a member of the BN coalition.

Palanivel was acting MIC president since late 2009 and was allegedly formally elected to the position in December 2013.

Since the suit was filed on Feb 24, 2015, Palanivel will go down in history as the shortest-lived elected MIC president, having served only 14 months.

Stay, too, dismissed

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

The election, after widespread allegations of malpractice by members, 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.

On June 15, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur threw out two judicial review applications filed by Palanivel and four others to quash the RoS directive for new elections.

Following that, Palanivel and the four filed for a stay of execution order but this, too, was today dismissed by the courts.