Tamil sangam contributed more to development of law than Tamil: HC

The Hindu 30 June 2014

The Madurai Tamil Sangam, a society registered in 1908 under the Societies Registration Act, has contributed more to development of law than literature by getting mired in litigations, the Madras High Court Bench here has observed.

A Division Bench, comprising Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice V.M. Velumani, made the observation while allowing a writ appeal filed by N. Kumaran Sethupathy, president of the sangam, against the society represented by its secretary R. Alagumalai.

“As in the case of every other society, this Madurai Tamil Sangam has also been involved in a series of litigations contributing both to the development of law and to the development of literature, perhaps more to the development of law than to the development of literature,” the judges said.

Writing the judgment for the Bench, Mr. Justice Ramasubramanian said the present appeal was against an order obtained by the secretary from a single judge restraining the appellant from convening an extraordinary general body meeting.

The judge said that it was a well settled law that no writ petition could be filed against a society. Nevertheless, the secretary of the sangam had worded his plea in such a way that it appeared to have sought a direction to the Inspector General of Registration but ultimately ended up to be a direction against the sangam’s president.

Stating that an extraordinary general meeting could not be convened at the instance of any individual but only at the request of the executive committee or a group of members, the judge said: “It is very strange that that the society represented by its secretary filed a writ against the president for a mandamus not to convene the meeting.”

HC objects to goondaism to recover loans

 B L :PTI : Madurai :19 oct 2012

Madras High Court on Friday observed that finance firms giving loans for vehicle purchases should follow legal procedure for recovery of the dues and not resort to goondaism in seizing the vehicle.

“If a debtor fails to pay the monthly instalments for one or two months, there is a procedure. The firms should follow that procedure,” Justice N Kirubakaran said.

He was admitting a petition by one Kannan who submitted that he had taken Rs.20,000 loan from a finance firm here for purchasing a two-wheeler which had to be repaid in 24 instalments of Rs.1,224 each.

Due to “unforeseen” developments in his family, he could not pay the instalments for July and August 2012.

On August 23, when he was on way to his office, five persons (goondas), assaulted him and took away the vehicle.

He lodged a complaint with Police but they did not take any action. He had also petitioned the Police Commissioner.

However, no action was taken against the goondas who assaulted him, he submitted and prayed to the court to direct the police to take action against the finance firm and the goondas.

Petitioner’s counsel Pandian said if a borrower did not pay three instalments continuously, he should be informed and a case be filed in court, which alone could order for the seizure of the vehicle.