A High Court challenge to a change in membership of the board of the company running the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland is being strongly disputed, a judge was told.
A dispute over control of the Al Maktoum Foundation CLG, which owns the centre in Clonskeagh, Dublin, reached the court last month when Mr Justice Brian Cregan was told it had arisen out of the alleged unlawful appointment of new directors to the foundation company.
The court previously heard the mosque and school at the centre have closed.
Dr Abdel Basset Elsayed, a Co Meath-based medical consultant who says he has been a director of the company since 2012, brought the challenge claiming the purported appointments of four new directors were invalid and did not follow the requirements of the company’s constitution.
READ MORE
He sought orders from the court requiring the Companies Registration Office (CRO) rectify its register by removing the allegedly unlawfully appointed members and restraining the new directors from performing any duties or representing themselves as directors of the company.
The other directors are notice parties in the case.
On Wednesday, when the case returned before the court, Lyndon MacCann SC, for the Al Maktoum Foundation, said Dr Elsayed purports to be a director, but counsel said his side says he is not.
Counsel said his instructing solicitors “have at all times” been the solicitors for the company and he was instructed by people who say they are the directors and they will be resisting Dr Elsayed’s applications.
[ School closed due to dispute over control of Islamic cultural centre in Dublin, court hears ]
Mr MacCann said he wanted time to reply to a new application for an injunction seeking to prevent the company from acting pending determination of the dispute. His side was also disputing that Joseph Sallabi BL, who told the court he has a contract as in-house counsel with the Al Maktoum Foundation, was in fact in-house counsel.
They were also saying that, even if they accepted Dr Elsayed was a director, which they say he is not, he had called a board meeting without notice to the other directors, counsel said.
Mr MacCann said as a lot of his deponents are based in the United Arab Emirates, he would need at least two weeks to put in a response to the latest application.
Mr Justice Cregan said it appeared to be a matter of some urgency as the mosque and school are closed. Mr Sallabi agreed it was a matter of some urgency.
The judge adjourned the case to next month.
