Justices M.M. Sundresh and R. Hemalatha of the Madras High Court on Thursday recused themselves from hearing a batch of cases related to the conduct of elections to the South Indian Artistes Association (SIAA), popularly known as Nadigar Sangam.
The judges directed the High Court Registry to list the case before some other Division Bench. The decision was taken after the warring groups refused to arrive at a consensus on either counting the votes of elections already held or to hold fresh elections.
The administration of Nadigar Sangam had turned murky after complaints were made by some members to the Registrar of Societies in 2019 that actors Vishal, Nasser and Karthi had no right to continue as office-bearers after the completion of their three-year tenure.
Immediately, the former office-bearers moved a writ petition in the High Court and obtained permission from Justice P.D. Audikesavalu to conduct the elections on June 23, 2019. However, the judge ordered that the votes should not be counted till the final disposal of the case. After taking it up for final hearing, Justice K. Kalyanasundaram set aside the election already held and ordered fresh elections. Aggrieved over such an order, the former office-bearers moved a writ appeal before the Division Bench.
When the appeal, along with a few other civil suits, were listed before the Bench led by Justice Sundresh, it directed the parties to attempt a compromise whereby both could agree either for counting the votes already cast or to hold fresh elections.
However, on Thursday, they reported back that no such compromise could be reached with the former office-bearers not agreeing for a fresh election and the other faction not willing to accept the counting of votes that were already cast.
