The Madras High Court p t asha j on Tuesday directed the Thamizhnadu Brahmin Association (Thambraas) to produce the minutes of its general body meeting held on October 22 to find out whether the issue of no confidence against its president N. Narayanan, due to his name having been raised in the ‘Me Too’ movement, was discussed or not.
The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Thamizhnadu Brahmin Association (Thambraas) to produce the minutes of its general body meeting held on October 22 to find out whether the issue of no confidence against its president N. Narayanan, due to his name having been raised in the ‘Me Too’ movement, was discussed or not.
Justice P.T. Asha directed advocate G. Nanmaran, representing Thambraas, to produce the minutes by September 8.
The direction was issued while hearing arguments on a civil suit preferred by the association against Indian Bank for not letting its president to operate a bank account due to a dispute between two factions in the association. Mr. Nanmaran told the judge that the bank had taken the decision to freeze the account solely on the basis of a letter written to it by ousted vice-president N. Hariharamuthu.
He also stated that a general body meeting convened against his client by Mr. Hariharamuthu’s faction on June 2, 2019, was against the bylaws of the association. He said Mr. Narayanan had actually conducted the general body meet on October 22, 2019 when over 1,500 members participated peacefully.
On the other hand, Ramaswamy Meyyappan, counsel for Mr. Hariharamuthu, said many members of the association were unhappy with Mr. Narayanan due to him bening named in the ‘Me Too’ controversy.
Though the charges were of a personal nature, they had brought disrepute to the association, he said.
He claimed that the president had to face flak from Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which had fined him for having reportedly duped investors, and hence that had also caused discontent among the members. He said the association had over four lakh members and that its general body consisted of around 3,000 members.
He further pointed out that the association remained unregistered till date though it was mandatory under the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act of 1975 to register such associations. When the judge asked if the government could be ordered to take over the association, he said such a course could be adopted only if the members had not raised the issue.
According to him, the members had insisted upon getting the association registered long back. However, the president did not take steps in that regard.
