AIADMK leader O. Panneerselvam has filed a civil suit in the Madras High Court with a plea to stall the party’s general council meeting, scheduled to be held on July 11.
He claimed that the suit had been filed only for the welfare of the party, and that by no stretch of imagination could it be construed as being against the party’s interests.
Justice Krishnan Ramasamy on Tuesday accepted a request made by senior counsel S. Guru Krishnakumar, representing Mr. Panneerselvam, for an early hearing of the suit, and directed the Registry to list it, along with another suit filed by general council member P. Vairamuthu, alias Amman Vairamuthu, who had also sought a similar relief, on Wednesday.
Mr. Panneerselvam said the July 11 meeting was convened illegally and in contravention of the party bylaws. He accused former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and his supporters of having “surreptitiously manoeuvred” things to their advantage to execute their “sinister plot to amend the basic structure of the party”.
He noted that the post of general secretary was abolished after the death of Jayalalithaa on December 5, 2016. Instead, two new posts - coordinator and joint coordinator [co-coordinator] - were created on September 12, 2017 to carry out the functions of the general secretary, and they were jointly empowered to relax or make alterations to any of the bylaws of the party.
The tenure of the new posts was fixed at five years. In December 2021, the executive council passed a special resolution amending the bylaws to the effect that those who choose to contest the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator should do so jointly, and they would get elected by a single vote from the primary members.
Accordingly, the election was notified on December 2, 2021 and it was announced that polling would take place on December 7. However, since no other duo but Mr. Panneerselvam and Mr. Palaniswami filed their nominations, they were declared elected unopposed as the coordinator and joint coordinator respectively.
However, now, there was rumbling in favour of unitary leadership, and an effort was made to amend the bylaw in the general council meeting on June 23. A Division Bench of the High Court, however, ordered that no resolution except the 23 draft resolutions approved by Mr. Panneerselvam should be passed at the meeting.
To circumvent the court order, the general council undemocratically rejected the 23 draft resolutions and “illegally” appointed A. Tamil Magan Hussain as permanent presidium chairman, and the latter announced that the next general council would be held on July 11.
“Only the coordinator and joint coordinator have the power to call for the general council meeting. But on June 23, without their consent, the unlawfully appointed presidium chairman announced that the next general council will be held on July 11, which is against Rule 20A(v) of the bylaws of the party,” the plaint read.
Further, pointing out some of the party leaders had been claiming the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator had expired because the June 23 general council did not ratify the executive council’s December 2021 decision, Mr. Panneerselvam said, such ratification was not even a part of the 23 resolutions that were served on him on June 23.
He said there were certain changes in the 23 draft resolutions that were approved by him on June 22 and the 23 resolutions that were placed before the general council on June 23.
