Madras High Court order favours EPS, stays single judge verdict

In that meeting held in July, Leader of Opposition K Palaniswami was elected as the interim general secretary of the party, the top post

A division bench of the Madras High Court on Friday handed out a major relief to Edappadi K Palaniswami by setting aside the order of a single judge nullifying the July 11 General Council meeting of the AIADMK that appointed him as the interim general secretary.

With the August 17 order by justice G Jeyachandran that favoured O Panneerselvam being set aside, Palaniswami’s appointment as the interim GS has been restored. Justices M Duraiswamy and Sundar Mohan allowed the appeal filed by Palaniswami against the single judge order which ordered status quo in the AIADMK as on June 23 that brought back the dual leadership to the party.

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The verdict has given much relief to Palaniswami, who controls the party forums, as the single judge order brought the party to a standstill. Palaniswami refused to accept Panneerselvam as coordinator of the party and went to court.

Panneerselvam, reacting to the verdict, said he will appeal against the order in the Supreme Court. In their order, the judges refrained from passing related on the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator while observing that Palaniswami cannot be “compelled to continue in the said post (joint coordinator)” as Panneerselvam also “cannot take any decision independently”.

“By giving a direction that there shall be no executive council meeting or general council meeting without joint consent of the coordinator and the joint coordinator, a situation has arisen where the party, as a whole, will undergo irreparable hardship, since there is no possibility of the appellant and the 1st respondent (EPS & OPS) acting jointly to convene a meeting, much less a General Council Meeting to discuss single leadership,” the order said.

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It said the direction of the single judge only furthers the “functional deadlock” that was already in existence in the party. The judges said when the praesidium chairman had announced the date of next special general council meeting based on the requisition made by 2,190 members of the General Council on June 23, OPS should have challenged the decision taken on that day to convene a meeting on July 11.

At the GC meeting on July 11, Palaniswami was elected as interim general secretary after which a motion was moved to expel Panneerselvam and his supporters. However, Panneerselvam filed a petition before the High Court seeking to declare as “illegal” the July 11 GC meeting as it was called by the Presidium Chairman who he said wasn’t authorised to convene the GC.