The Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered status quo ante as on June 23 with respect to the leadership of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) which meant that the election of Edappadi K Palaniswami as interim general secretary during the July 11 general council meet will not be valid.
Justice G Jayachandran ordered restoration of O. Panneerselvam and Mr. Palaniswami as the coordinator and joint cordinator (co-coordinator)of the party and ordered conduct of a fresh general council meet to take further decisions with respect to the leadership of the party. The orders were passed on Mr. Panneerselvam's plea against the July 11 meet.
The challenge to the July 11 general council meet assumes significance since it was in that meet a decision was taken to expel Mr. Panneerselvam from the primary membership of the party besides reviving the post of general secretary to be elected by the primary members.
A decision was also taken in the meet to abolish the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator which Mr. Panneerselvam and Mr. Palaniswami had held after they distanced themselves from VK Sasikala after she was imprisoned in a disproportionate assets case in February 2017 and ruled the State jointly for four years.
When there was whiff of a plan to pass resolutions in favour of unitary leadership and against dual leadership in the party's during its June 23 general council meet, one of its member M. Shunmugam moved the High Court to restrain the council from passing any such resolution.
Justice Krishnan Ramasamy heard the matter for over two days and dismissed the plea at around 8 pm on July 22. Immediately, an urgent appeal was moved before the second Division Bench of Justices M. Duraiswamy and Sunder Mohan who heard the matter from 3 am to 4:40 am at their residence on June 23.
The Bench restrained the June 23 general council from taking any decision on a issue which was not part of the draft resolutions approved by Mr. Panneerselvam in his capacity as Coordinator. Unhappy over such restraint order, the general council decided to meet again on July 11.
On July 5, Mr. Panneerselvam and yet another general council member 'Amman'Vairamuthu alias P. Vairamuthu filed individual suits before the High Court and sought to stall the July 11 meet. Justice Ramasamy heard these petitions on July 7&8 and delivered his verdict on July 11.
The verdict delivered at 9 am on that day dismissed the petitions filed by Mr. Panneerselvam and the other litigant and permitted the general council to commence at 9:15 am as planned. Instead of filing an appeal before the Division Bench, Mr. Panneerselvam moved the Supreme Court directly.
On July 29, the Supreme Court remanded the matter to the single judge of the High Court for fresh consideration. Subsequently, on August 5, Justice Ramasamy requested Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari to list the matter before some other judge since he had dealt with it twice already.
Accordingly, the Chief Justice nominated Justice Jayachandran who heard the matter elaborately on August 10 and 11 before reserving orders.
