KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 — The High Court will hear next month an application by former MIC president Tun S. Samy Vellu’s alleged common-law wife to be part of a case regarding his mental health status.
The alleged common-law wife E. Meeriam Rosaline’s lawyer Ramesh Sivakumar said the High Court today fixed a hearing date for his client’s application to intervene in the court matter.
“Directions was given, our application to intervene will be heard on February 18... And on the same day, if our application to intervene is dismissed, the court will proceed to do an inquiry to see whether Samy Vellu is fit to manage his affairs.
“If our application is allowed, then the matter will be deferred to another date with further directions to be taken by the parties,” Ramesh told reporters following case management in chambers before High Court judge Datuk Mohd Sofian Abd Razak.
Ramesh said Meeriam’s intervener application was filed on December 17, and asserted that his client is recognised under the law as the common law wife of Samy Vellu.
“Of course we are quite sure about our position, we have stated whatever we are supposed to say, we have detailed out madam’s relationship with Samy Vellu and it’s all there, it’s now for the court to make a decision,” he said of Meeriam’s intervener application, later adding that his client has a legal interest in this case.
The court matter that Meeriam wants to be part of is a lawsuit filed by Samy Vellu’s son Datuk Seri S. Vell Paari.
Last month, Vell Paari had filed the lawsuit in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur to ask the court to direct for an inquiry to be held to determine his 82-year-old father Samy Vellu’s mental health status.
Vell Paari’s application is under Section 52 of the Mental Health Act 2001, under which the court may make an order directing an inquiry to be held to determine if a person alleged to be mentally disordered is incapable of managing himself and his affairs due to such mental disorder.
The court can also under Section 52 of the Mental Health Act order for inquiries to be made on other matters such as the nature of property belonging to the person alleged to be mentally disordered, who his relatives are, and the period in which he has been mentally disordered.
Vell Paari previously told Malay Mail that he had no difficulties or differences with his father, and that Samy Vellu had authorised him towards 2017 to manage his personal and financial affairs.
Vell Paari said he had decided to file the lawsuit to determine Samy Vellu’s mental health condition, due to his father’s diagnosis in 2017 as suffering from dementia and due to a separate court case filed by Meeriam.
Vell Paari is reportedly seeking for the court to appoint him to a committee to manage his father’s affairs if Samy Vellu is determined by mental health experts to be mentally incapable of managing his own affairs, as well as to determine how many properties Samy Vellu owns.
Both Samy Vellu and Vell Paari were not present in court today, while Meeriam was seen with her 88-year-old mother in court.
Meeriam, 59, had filed a civil lawsuit against Samy Vellu and Vell Paari, claiming to have married the former minister in a customary wedding in 1981 and to have documentary evidence of the alleged common-law union.
In her lawsuit before the High Court in Ipoh, Meeriam sought formal recognition of her customary but childless marriage to Samy Vellu, and claims that she is entitled to RM25,000 in monthly maintenance payments.
Last month, the High Court in Ipoh postponed a hearing of Meeriam’s interim application for unrestricted access to Samy Vellu to January 17, due to Vell Paari’s lawsuit regarding his father’s mental fitness.
