Chennai, July 3 (BPNS)
The Madras High Court will hear a plea by the AIADMK general council member, M. Shanmugham to restrain the party from holding its general council meeting on July 11.
The court will also take a call on staying the appointment of senior AIADMK leader A. Tamilmagan Hussain as the party presidium chairman.
Justices M. Duraiswamy and Sundar Mohan would also take up the petition filed by Shanmugham on the alleged contempt of court proceedings against senior leaders Edappadi K. Palaniswami, CVe Shanmugham, D. Jayakumar, A. Tamilmagan Hussain, K.P. Munusamy and Dindigul Sreenivasan.
The litigant by filing a series of sub-applications in a pending appeal told the court that its founding leader M.G. Ramachandran had wanted its supreme leader to always be elected by the primary members of the party and that the bylaws of the party were drafted in this manner.
He cited the election of O. Panneerselvam and Edappadi K. Palaniswami jointly elected as the coordinator and co-coordinator of the party respectively through a single vote process in December 2021. Such election process needs to be ratified in the party general council held on June 23rd, the applicant said.
Shanmugham in the petition said that he had filed a civil suit in the High Court on June 22 when he came to know that there was a plan to pass a resolution in favour of a single leadership in the June 23rd general council meet and sought an interim order restraining the party from passing any such resolution.
While the Single bench of the Madras High Court refused to issue an interim order, the division bench of the court led by Justice Duraiswamy restrained the general council from taking a decision on any new resolution but for the 23 resolutions that had been approved by the party coordinator O. Panneerselvam. The court heard the petition at the residence of Justice Duraiswamy at 2.30 am on June 23rd and passed the order at 4.40 am.
The petitioner in the complaint said that Edappadi Palaniswami moved a resolution to appoint Tamilmagan Hussain as the party presidium Chairman which was seconded by D. Jayakumar and Dindigul Sreenivasan.
Shanmugham said that Tamilmagan Hussain, Palaniswami, Sreenivasan, and Jayakumar were guilty of contempt of court as Hussain had announced that the next general council meeting of the party would be held on July 11th. The litigant said that the actions of Tamilmagan Hussain were circumventing court orders.
The petitioner also sought to restrain the conduct of the next general council elections on July 11 and punish the AIADMK leaders for contempt and for issuing a stay order in the appointment of A. Tamilmagan Hussain.
