The Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed as infructuous a civil suit filed by AIADMK general council member M. Shanmugam against the party’s June 23, 2022 general council meet.
This was the first case filed to prevent a shift from dual leadership of O. Panneerselvam and Edappadi K. Palaniswami as coordinator and joint coordinator to unitary leadership in the party.
Justice N. Sathish Kumar dismissed the suit since the subsequent general council meet held on July 11, 2022 had elected Mr. Palaniswami as general secretary and expelled Mr. Panneerselvam.
The suit filed in June 2022 had created much anxiety in the political circles. Justice Krishnan Ramasamy had passed an interim order on June 22, 2022 refusing to interfere with the general council meet.
However, the matter was taken on appeal immediately before a Division Bench of Justices M. Duraiswamy and Sunder Mohan who heard the matter between 12:30 am and 4:30 am on June 23, 2022.
The Bench had restrained the general council from taking any decision on unitary leadership. Subsequently, the matter was taken to the Supreme Court and another general council was held on July 11, 2022.
