Chennai, June 23 (BPNS)

The Madras High court division bench in an extraordinary sitting in the wee hours of Thursday restrained the AIADMK general council meeting from amending the party by-laws on Thursday. The division bench comprising of Justices M. Duraiswamy and Sunder Mohan passed the interim order after hearing an appeal at the senior judge’s residence between 2.40 am and 4. 30 am.

The appeal was preferred against a single bench judge Justice Krishnan Ramaswamy refusing to pass restrain order in respect to the resolutions passed by the general council scheduled on Thursday.

The single bench had passed the judgment at 8. 40 pm and immediately general council member of AIADMK, M. Shanmugham filed an appeal and obtained permission for an urgent hearing.

Senior Counsel P.H. Arvind Pandian, represented the AIADMK coordinator O. Panneerselvam. The advocate told the Madras High court that as the general council meeting was scheduled on Thursday morning, there was grave urgency in hearing the matter.

The court obliged and heard the plea and pronounced the judgment restraining the general council from amending any by-law of the party. This has brought a huge relief to O. Panneerselvam and his camp as an amendment of by-law would mean the party opting for a single leader and posting Edappadi K. Palaniswami as the Single general secretary. Since the passing away of former Chief Minister and AIADMK general secretary, J. Jayalalithaa, the party has been having a dual leadership with O. Panneerselvam and Edappadi K. Palaniswami leading the party as coordinator and joint coordinator respectively.