EPS' appeal against single judge's order adjourned to Thursday

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday adjourned the appeals to Thursday preferred by former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami against the order of a single judge quashing the July 11 general council meeting of AIADMK and the subsequent election of EPS as the interim general secretary of the party.

The second bench of Justice M Duraiswamy and Justice Sunder Mohan passed the matters to Thursday for the hearing of the final arguments of EPS, his rival OPS and OPS' supporter Amman P Vairamuthu.

Senior Counsel PH Arvind Pandian representing OPS requested the bench to take the matter on Thursday citing that their senior advocate Guru Krishnakumar has to appear in this case. The former AG noted that the senior advocate is busy in some other cases. Arvind Pandian also requested the judges not to grant a stay on the single judge's order till then.

As EPS' counsel and senior advocate S Vijay Narayan agreed to post the matter on Thursday, the court adjourned the matter for final hearings on Thursday.

On August 17, Justice G Jayachandran passed a status quo order as of June 23 position in AIADMK which nullified the July GC meeting of AIADMK because no it was convened in contravention to the party bye-laws.

The judge said that the GC meeting should have been convened with the joint consent of the coordinator and the joint coordinator with 15 days of clear prior notice.

However, the leader of the opposition claimed that a virtual deadlock had occurred due to the order of the single judge and it is impossible to conduct the GC meeting along with OPS.