Sto­ries by Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

Two pun­dits are seek­ing an in­junc­tion block­ing a Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha ex­ec­u­tive elec­tion sched­uled for Sun­day. 

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that last week, lawyers rep­re­sent­ing Pun­dits Hard­eo Ma­haraj and Teka Sam­nar­ine filed the in­junc­tion ap­pli­ca­tion against act­ing SDMS Pres­i­dent Gen­er­al Kr­ish­na Ram­bal­ly, act­ing Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Vi­jay Ma­haraj, Dhar­ma­charya Dr Ram­per­sad Paras­ram, Pres­i­dent of the Pan­dits’ Parishad Navin Ma­haraj, and Sec­re­tary of the Pan­dits’ Parishad Rishi Ma­haraj. 

The ap­pli­ca­tion came up for hear­ing, yes­ter­day af­ter­noon, with High Court Judge Karen Reid re­serv­ing her de­ci­sion for to­day. 

Ac­cord­ing to their court fil­ings, the pun­dits are claim­ing that un­der the SDMS’s con­sti­tu­tion, its na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive con­sists of 50 mem­bers - 31, com­pris­ing the Pres­i­dent Gen­er­al and Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al, and 29 or­di­nary mem­bers, are elect­ed every five years at the Con­fer­ence of Del­e­gates in Sep­tem­ber. 

The re­main­ing 12 mem­bers are nom­i­nat­ed by the Pres­i­dent Gen­er­al and Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary af­ter their elec­tion. 

The last elec­tion oc­curred in Sep­tem­ber 2018, when Pun­dit Utham Ma­haraj was elect­ed Pres­i­dent Gen­er­al and Dhar­ma­charya and long-serv­ing sec­re­tary gen­er­al Sat­narayan Ma­haraj was elect­ed. 

Utham Ma­haraj passed away in No­vem­ber 2018, while Sat­narayan Ma­haraj died in No­vem­ber 2019. 

The pun­dits are con­tend­ing that un­der the SDMS con­sti­tu­tion, Ram­bal­ly, as the then First Vice Pres­i­dent could have act­ed as Pres­i­dent Gen­er­al un­til an elec­tion at the Sep­tem­ber Con­fer­ence of Del­e­gates in 2019. 

They al­so claimed that Dr Paras­ram could not be elect­ed in con­sul­ta­tion with the Pan­dits’ Parishad as the con­sti­tu­tion re­quires that the Dhar­ma­charya be a mem­ber of the na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive, which he (Dr Paras­ram) was not. 

They claimed that an elec­tion for Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al should have tak­en place in Sep­tem­ber 2020 but  Vi­jay Ma­haraj took up his fa­ther’s va­cant po­si­tion. 

They al­so claimed that they were de­nied par­tic­i­pa­tion in the elec­tion for the Pan­dits’ Parishad, which took place in Ju­ly in­stead of in Au­gust as is tra­di­tion­al­ly done be­fore the na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive elec­tion. 

Through the in­junc­tion, the pun­dits are seek­ing or­ders bar­ring the de­fen­dants from host­ing the elec­tion and con­tin­u­ing to act in the ex­ec­u­tive po­si­tions pend­ing the out­come of a sub­stan­tive law­suit. 

The pun­dits are be­ing rep­re­sent­ed by Vashist Ma­haraj, Ne­han­da Pierre, Vani­ta Ram­roop, Sunil Seecha­ran, Amit Jag­ger­nauth and Anand Ma­habir. The act­ing ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers were rep­re­sent­ed by Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj, SC, Rishi Dass, SC and Vi­jaya Ma­haraj.