Madras High Court to hear on Monday plea to stall AIADMK’s July 11 general council meet
The Hindu
Litigant also insists on punishing top brass of the party for alleged willful disobedience of orders passed by the court on June 23
The Madras High Court is slated to hear on Monday a plea to restrain All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) from convening its general council meeting on July 11. The court will also take a call on staying the appointment of A. Tamil Magan Hussain as the presidium chairman of the party.
Justices M. Duraiswamy and Sunder Mohan would also take up for hearing an application filed by general council member M. Shanmugum to punish party leaders Edappadi K. Palaniswami, C.Ve. Shanmugam, K.P. Munusamy, Mr. Hussain, D. Jayakumar and Dindigul C. Sreenivasan for alleged contempt of court.
Filing a series of sub applications in a pending original side appeal, the litigant told the court the party’s founder M.G. Ramachandran had intended that its supremo should always get elected by the primary members and therefore the bylaws of the party were also drafted to reflect his intention.
Accordingly, former Chief Ministers O. Panneerselvam and Mr. Palaniswami were jointly elected as coordinator and joint coordinator respectively of the party by way of a single vote process in December 2021. Such election process had to be ratified by the party’s general council that met on June 23 this year.
However, when news leaked in the media that there was a plan to pass a resolution in favour of unitary leadership during the June 23 meet, the litigant filed a civil suit in the High Court on June 22 and sought an interim order restraining the party from passing any such resolution in the general council.
A single judge of the High Court refused to pass any such interim order. However, on appeal, the Division Bench led by Justice Duraiswamy restrained the general council from taking a decision on any new resolution but for 23 draft resolutions that had been approved by the party coordinator Mr. Panneerselvam.
The order was passed at 4:40 a.m. on June 23 after a special hearing held at the judge’s residence and it was communicated to the counsel representing the party and its leaders. Yet, in defiance of the court order, Mr. Palaniswami moved a resolution to appoint Mr. Hussain as presidium chairman and it was seconded by Mr. Jayakumar and Mr. Sreenivasan, the litigant claimed.