Applications by O. Panneerselvam and three other expelled leaders, challenging the party’s resolutions that abolished the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator and revived the post of general secretary, were rejected; however a Division Bench has agreed to hear, on Wednesday, an urgent appeal against this order

The Madras High Court on Tuesday, March 28, 2023 rejected all interim applications filed by AIADMK expelled leaders O. Panneerselvam, P.H. Manoj Pandian, R. Vaithilingam and J.C.D. Prabhakar, challenging the July 11, 2022 party general council resolutions as well as the party’s consequent general secretary election.

Justice K. Kumaresh Babu held that he did not find any ground to entertain the applications that had urged the court to restrain the party from implementing the resolutions which abolished the posts of Coordinator and Joint Coordinator, and decided to revive the post of general secretary, to be elected by primary members.

This led to the three litigants moving urgent applications against the election notification and the plea was heard in a special sitting held on March 19, a Sunday. After about two hours of hearing, the judge felt it would be better to hear the new applications against the election notification along with the previous applications against the general council resolutions and dispose of them together.

Hence, the AIADMK gave an undertaking to the court that it would not declare the results of the election until the disposal of the interim applications against the general council resolutions as well as the election notification.

Thereafter, the matter was heard at length on March 22, also a holiday for the High Court in view of Telugu New Year. In the meantime, Mr. Panneerselvam too came up with an individual suit and hence the applications filed by all four applicants were heard and orders were reserved on March 22.

Appeal

Within minutes of Justice Babu rejecting all the interim applications, senior counsel C. Manishankar and Abdul Saleem made a mention before a Division Bench of Justices R. Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq and obtained permission to move an appeal on Wednesday, March 28, 2023.