The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed all four sub-applications filed by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general council member M. Shanmugum with multiple prayers, including a plea to punish Edappadi K. Palaniswami and a few other party leaders for contempt of court.
Justices M. Duraiswamy and Sunder Mohan dismissed the sub-applications since the Supreme Court had on Wednesday stayed an order passed by the Bench on June 23. They, however, granted liberty to the litigant to revive his applications if he succeeded in the appeal filed by Mr. Palaniswami before the Supreme Court.
The Bench had on June 23 restrained the party’s general council, which met on that day, from passing any resolution but for the 23 draft resolutions that had been approved by coordinator O. Panneerselvam. The injunction was granted on an appeal preferred by Mr. Shanmugum against a single judge’s order refusing to interfere with party affairs.
Subsequently, the appellant moved four sub-applications. One was to implead Mr. Palaniswami and other party leaders including C.Ve. Shanmugam, A. Tamil Magan Hussain, Dindigul C. Sreenivasan and D. Jayakumar as respondents to the case and another was to punish them for having allegedly disobeyed the order passed on June 23.
Claiming that the June 23 general council meet had rejected all 23 draft resolutions and instead appointed Mr. Hussain as permanent presidium chairman of the party though such appointment was not in the agenda at all, the litigant had filed a third sub-application to stay the appointment of the presidium chairman.
Further, since Mr. Hussain had declared that the next general council meet would be held in Chennai on July 11, the fourth sub-application sought an injunction restraining the party from conducting such meet. The Bench, led by Justice Duraiswamy, said there was no point in keeping the sub-applications pending after the Supreme Court’s stay order.
They also said a decision on the appeal pending before them, against the single judge’s order, would be taken when it gets listed on July 19 as per earlier orders.
