^{A picture of the venue of TESO conference to be held on Aug. 12,2012 at YMCA Ground at Royapettah in Chennai. Photo: The Hindu}


As suspense continued over the fate of the Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation (Teso) conference to be held on Sunday, DMK chief M Karunanidhi announced on Saturday evening that the event would be held at Anna Arivalayam, the party headquarters, if there were any problems in holding it at the YMCA Grounds at Royapettah, Chennai.

“If the ban remains, the conference will be held at Anna Arivalayam at 4pm,” he said in a statement soon after the Madras high court division bench decided to meet on Sunday to take up the party’s petition against the denial of permission to hold the meet at YMCA Grounds.

Earlier in the day, Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar heard high-voltage arguments of advocate-general A Navaneethakrishnan and senior advocate P Wilson, who represented the organizers of the conference, for about 90 minutes before citing a legal and technical factor that disallowed a single judge from hearing the case.

He referred the matter to the Chief Justice to be posted before a division bench.

It was only after 8pm that the high court registry informed the parties that the matter would be heard by a division bench, comprising Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and Justice M Venugopal, on Sunday.

The Indian ministry of external affairs on Saturday informed the organisers of Teso that it had no objection to using the word ‘Eelam’ in the title of the conference.

In a communication to Teso secretary Hasan Mohammed Jinnah, external affairs coordination division deputy secretary R K Nagpal said: “The organisers are advised to ensure that the conference does not issue any declaration or outcome that calls into question in any manner the sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of any foreign country with whom India has diplomatic relations.”

Karunanidhi said deliberations on protection of right to life and livelihood of Eelam Tamils to be held in a city hotel on Sunday morning will take place as scheduled. “Resolutions to be passed at the Teso conference will be discussed and given final touches during this conclave,” he said.

The DMK leader said the party had taken all legal steps to challenge the ban imposed by the city police. The party will announce the names of speakers, orators and other functionaries who will highlight the Teso resolutions at public meetings across the state between August 20 and 30, Karunanidhi said.

He told cadres and Teso members to organise meetings in support of Lankan Tamils, besides urging the Centre and the countries that had supported a resolution against Sri Lanka in the United Nations Human Rights Council at Geneva to put an end to the problems of the internally displaced Tamils in the island nation. – Times of India