Court appoints retired district judge to conduct elections to posts in Madras Reporters Guild

Chennai, Sep 9 (PTI) A city civil court has appointed a retired district judge to conduct election to the posts of office bearers of Madras Reporters Guild.

Appearing for the applicant, senior advocate Abudukumar Rajarathinam, submitted that the Madras Reporters Guild (MRG) was established on April 26, 1957 to safeguard the interests of journalists and its office, situated at Omandurar Government Estate here, was inaugurated by former Chief Minister K Kamaraj on July 12, 1957, which served as a vital space for reporters.

The guild, though, earned accolades from distinguished leaders, including late Chief Ministers Kamaraj and C N Annadurai, election to posts of office bearers had not been held periodically.

Therefore, A Wilson Asirvatham, a reporter of a Tamil daily, filed the present applications and suit, to appoint an Advocate/Judge Commissioner to oversee and manage the affairs of the MRG, scrutinize its membership by removing bogus members, consider pending applications for new membership and conduct elections of the MRG pending disposal of the suit.

After hearing both sides, I Assistant City Civil judge P Chandrasekar appointed Mohan Raj, District Judge (Retired) as a Judge Commissioner/Election Officer and also appointed advocate D Abdul Subhan as an Advocate Commissioner/Co-Election Officer to assist the Judge Commissioner, for conducting Extra-General Body Meeting and receiving new membership applications from the reporters functioning in Chennai and scrutinise the new membership as well as old membership and issue final voter list and conduct fair election and if necessary, police protection may be requested. PTI COR VGN KH