Chennai 17 Aug : The power battle in AIADMK has changed with the Madras High Court giving an order in favor of the former Chief Minister and Coordinator O.Panneerselvam (OPS).The court, on Wednesday, ordered the maintenance of the status in place that was in place as of 23 June in the AIADMK.The 11th of July General Council (GC) meeting of the party was the one that elected Edappadi K.Palaniswami (EPS) as interim general secretary.
Justice G.Jayachandran of the Madras High Court passed the order in response to a petition brought by O.Panneerselvam and party General Council member, P.Varimuthu, who challenged the legitimacy of the GC meeting that was held on the 11th of July in the course of which Panneerselvam and other people who were close to him were exiled from the party.
The single bench judge of the Madras High Court ordered that the coordinator and joint coordinator be able to meet the GC again in the presence of the commissioner who will supervise the meeting of council.
Advocate Guru Krishnakumar appearing for OPS claimed that the General Council was a small body , and was created to appear as that the decisions of the GC was the view of everyone in the party.Aravind Pandian, another advocate representing OPS said that the party’s presidium chairman is not able to convene the GC meeting and only conduct the meeting.
He stated that there was no rule in the party’s bylaws that allowed any other person besides the general secretary or coordinator of the joint coordinator to call the General Council meeting and, consequently, the fact that the GC was called by the presidium chairperson under the rules of Rule 19 and 20 of the AIADMK bylaws.This is null and void.
The Palaniswami party represented by the former Advocate General of Tamil Nadu, Vijay Narayanan and two other lawyers claimed the absence of violations or infractions of the party’s code of conduct in holding the meeting.
They stated that the official announcement of the meeting was announced in the room of the 23rd June General Council meeting by the presidium chairman .The invitations were issued by the office bearers of the headquarters since the position of coordinator and joint coordinator was no longer available due to a decision made by the executive committee of the party in the month of December in 2021.
Justice Jayachandran, after hearing both sides, he passed the decision of keeping the status in place of June 23 and ruled the General council’s meeting of July 11 as null and unconstitutional.
The ruling will result in OPS being reinstated as coordinator, and EPS as Joint coordinator.
aal/dpb
