Dethroned Mrs India SA must wait to hear verdict

THE winner of Mrs India South Africa 2018 will have to wait a while longer to hear if her disqualification as the title holder was legitimate.

Saumaya Tiwari Gautam, who was crowned in August, made an urgent application through her attorney Rajesh Hiralall before Judge Jacqueline Henriques after she was stripped of her title by pageant organisers Annulutchmee Thaver and Deon Ganas.

However, Henriques ruled that a senior civil judge needed to handle the matter.

On Monday, an application was subsequently made before senior Civil Court Judge Achmat Jappie for a preferential date. It has yet to be set down.

The 31-year-old Cape Town medical doctor was de-throned after she served summons of R1.2 million to the organisers for not receiving prizes, which included a car worth R300 000, in October. She is also claiming R350 000 in damages after she turned down a community post at two hospitals to fulfil her duties as the winner.

On November 2, runner-up Daphne Singh, was sashed and crowned as the new queen. Gautam responded with the urgent court application.

Thaver filed responding documents to the urgent application last week. In her response, she said that Gautam’s urgent application was “contradictory” in that she was claiming damages and wanting to be re-instated as the titleholder of the pageant.

She said Gautam failed to show cause for urgency and asked for the application to be struck off the roll and dismissed with costs.

Thaver said that the urgent application was served on November 5 and only gave three days to respond.

She added that Gautam had not signed her contract after winning her title and had ceased all communication with her.