Kuala Lumpur, June 16 (IANS): President of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) political party, G. Palanivel, on Tuesday suspended his deputy, S. Subramaniam, and 11 others for not abiding by his instructions not to hold any Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting.

The other suspended members include vice-president M. Saravanan, Channel News Asia reported.

"The suspension is for a period of 12 months with immediate effect," Palanivel said.

"The other members who also signed the illegal notice have already been suspended by me earlier, and the suspensions remain," he added.

Palanivel said the meeting scheduled at 12.30 p.m. Tuesday was illegal as the notice for the meeting was not issued by the party secretary-general.

"Despite my said memo dated June 15, 2015, these individuals had not cancelled the scheduled meeting," he said.

"It is beyond doubt that the acts of these individuals were clearly detrimental to the interests of the Malaysian Indian Congress," he added.

The MIC is part of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

Ethnic Indians comprise a little over nine percent of Malyasia'a total population of nearly 30 million.