Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) president general Krishna Rambally and Secretary General Vijay Maharaj will continue at the helm of the organisation for the next five years.
Rambally, who took up the position when his predecessor Utham Maharaj passed away in November 2018, and Vijay Maharaj, who took up the post after his father Satnarayan died in 2019, were elected at the SDMS’s Conference of Delegates held at the Lakshmi Girls’ Hindu College Auditorium, yesterday afternoon.
Rambally and Maharaj then sought to appoint members to the SDMS Central Executive under the organisation’s constitution. The move was approved by representatives of the 83 registered financial temple branches.
The election took place as two pundits Hardeo Maharaj and Teka Samnarine failed in their bid to stop it, last week.
The pundits were 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 claimed that an election for Secretary-General should have taken place in September 2020, but Vijay Maharaj took up his father’s vacant position without such a process.
In rejecting the injunction and the duo’s substantive complaints, Justice Karen Reid ruled that the process used for the upcoming election could not be faulted based on the organisation’s constitution.
Dealing with Rambally, Justice Reid noted that although there were no nominations before the 2019 September Conference of Delegates, he was properly installed in the post during the meeting.
“This is especially so since that body is the only body constitutionally entitled to elect a nominee to the position,” she said.
In reference to Vijay Maharaj, Justice Reid ruled that although he was not properly elected after his father’s death, his acting in the position could not be faulted.
“I would decline to grant an interim injunction on this basis since he has been publicly acting in this role since 2019 without challenge and, the Claimant’s undue delay in mounting a challenge is fatal to their application in this regard,” Justice Reid said.
In terms of the allegations over the election of the Pandits’ Parishad, Justice Reid said the duo presented no evidence to properly challenge it.
“Finally, I find that the Claimant’s spurious allegations of fraudulent conduct on the part of the Defendants are not made out on their evidence,” she said.
In assessing whether the duo should still be allowed to pursue their substantive case, Justice Reid ruled that while they are registered members of the Exchange Branch, it (the branch) was not registered as a financial branch of the SDMS.
Justice Reid also ruled that it would be wrong to grant them interim relief days before the election.
“Coming as they are now on the eve of the election is manifestly unjust, not only to the Defendants but to the SDMS and their members as a whole, who are entitled to conduct their constitutionally due election,” she said.
The pundits were represented by Vashist Maharaj, Nehanda Pierre, Vanita Ramroop, Sunil Seecharan, Amit Jaggernauth, and Anand Mahabir. The executive members were represented by Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, Rishi Dass, SC, Vijaya Maharaj, and Varin Gopaul-Gosine.