Court summons MPP president over suspension of party members

IMPHAL, April 27: President of Manipur People`™s Party (MPP), one of the oldest regional parties of the country, N Sovakiran Singh has been summoned by the court following a petition filed by three members of the party, challenging their suspension for six years from the central and working committee of MPP by the party president.

The summoned was served by the court of Civil Judge, Senior Division No 1, Dr Ch Shantibala Devi. Challenging the suspension, the three petitioners claimed before the court that their suspension is against the constitution of the party.

The petition was filed under Judicial Misc Case No 259 of 2015 Ref Original (Declaratory) Suit No 43 of 2015. The three petitioners have been identified as Laikhuram Apabi Singh, N Singhajit Singh and AK Sanaton.

The petition was filed on April 22, 2015 and subsequently the court admitted it on the same day. Following the admission of the case, the court of the Civil Judge on April 24 asked N Sovakiran to appear before the court on May 4 at 10.30 am.

Summoning the party president, the court in its order said, “™Whereas, the above name Plaintiffs/Petitioners has instituted a declaratory suit for temporary injunction against you, You are hereby summon to appear in this court in person or by a duly instructed and able to answer all materials question relating to the suit or who shall be accompanied by some person able to answer all such questions`™`™.

Talking to this daily about the case, the three petitioners said that the party`™s central committee members including them submitted a requisition notice to the party office on March 20 last to convene a meeting of the central committee members.

The three disgruntled petitioners said that they came to know about their suspension from the party for six years through the media on March 21 after which they filed a petition at the court challenging the suspension order which according to them is against the party`™s constitution.

Claiming that the annual conference of the party is due to be held though two years had been passed under the leadership of N Sovakiran, they said that the party president had been demanded to produce statement of accounts regarding monthly rent fare coming from the 166 shops owned by the party and deposit amount of Rs 1.30 crore collected from several depositors for construction of 26 shops.

Meanwhile, N Sovakiran has said that he has no knowledge of the case nor he has received summon order from the court so far.