In a major setback to rebel AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam, the Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed batch of pleas by his faction and upheld the validity of General Council decision.
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a Madras High Court order setting aside the cancellation of the election of Edappadi K Palaniswami as interim General Secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)
We have upheld the order of the Division Bench of the High Court dated 2.9.22, and made our earlier interim order permanent. We have not dealt with the matter of resolutions before the party that were being heard by the single-judge. We leave it open for the said resolutions to be dealt with in accordance in law. We do not seek it necessary to allow the impleadment applications.”
The Court also said that its interim order passed on July 6 last year, which stayed a High Court order restraining amendment to the AIADMK by-laws, would be made permanent.
The top court last month had reserved its verdict in the matter.
The batch of petitions included an appeal by the O Panneerselvam camp against a division bench Madras High Court ruling that had upheld the resolution passed at the general council meeting expelling him and appointing Palaniswami as the interim General Secretary.
The genesis of the matter lies in a leadership crisis in the AIADMK after the party’s defeat in the State elections in 2021, after which a section of its office-bearers had sought to amend the party’s by-laws so that there will be a single leader for the party.
After the passing of former Chief Minister and the party’s General Secretary J Jayalalithaa, and the arrest of the subsequent interim General Secretary V Sasikala, Palaniswami and Panneerselvam had held the posts of Joint Coordinator and Coordinator of the party, respectively.
Their tenures, as per Panneerselvam, was supposed to lapse on June 23, 2022.
However, the party held a General Council meeting on July 11, 2022 which passed resolutions to abolish these posts and restore the post of General Secretary.
This effectively left Palaniswami at the helm. In the same meeting, Panneerselvam was removed from the post of Coordinator and from its primary membership by the Palaniswami camp .
Subsequently, there were disputes over who could use the party headquarters and office etc., leading to present batch of pleas before the top court after parties were aggrieved with the Madras High Court’s rulings in that regard.
In the first round of litigation before the Supreme Court, the Madras High Court had been ordered to decide afresh the plea by Panneerselvam challenging the changes made to the by-laws of the AIADMK.
On the last date of hearing, the apex court had directed the AIADMK to convene a General Council meeting to select candidates for the upcoming by-poll to the Erode East Assembly constituency.
It specified that the same was an interim arrangement, even as the judgment on the leadership tussle between EPS and OPS remains reserved.
As per the top court’s order, O Panneerselvam’s expulsion from the party was set aside for the time being.
The apex court affirmed the Madras High Court division bench decision that restored Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) as the AIADMK party’s single leader.
A case was filed against the AIADMK’s General Council meeting held on July 11.
To give a quick recall, the meeting made headlines for removing EPS’ friend-turned-foe OPS from the party.
It also passed a resolution to make the Kongu belt based Palanisamy as AIADMK’s ‘Interim General Secretary’ and Tamil Magan Hussain as the party’s Presidium Chairman.
Now that the legal hurdles have been removed completely, Palanisamy would assert his power by holding election for the party’s top post and elevate himself as the General Secretary said his supporters
