General Secy election held against intra-party democracy: OPS in HC

CHENNAI: The conditions which were not imposed in the Assembly and Parliamentary elections were imposed in the AIADMK general secretary election, said O Panneerselvam in the Madras High Court on Friday during the second day of final hearing on the four appeals filed by expelled leaders O Panneerselvam, PH Manoj Pandian, R Vaithilingam and JCD Prabhakar challenging the refusal to injunct the party from implementing its July 11 general council resolutions that abolished the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator.

When the appeal pleas came before a division bench comprising Justices R Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq, senior counsel Guru Krishnakumar representing O Panneerselvam submitted that there is no provision in the party's bylaws that the amended rules and the election of coordinator and joint coordinator should be placed in the general council meeting.

"There are no resolutions approving the decision and resolutions of the Executive Council meeting held in December, 2021 were placed before the June 23, 2023 general council meeting. Instead of this, resolutions were placed in such a way as to record the election and appointment of new office bearers and express appreciation and because those resolutions were rejected, how can it be said that the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator have lapsed," he questioned.

Pointing out the errors in the single judge's order, he submitted that the single judge (K Kumaresh Babu) had issued the order without considering the party's byelaw and previous happenings.

"There are only 75 district secretaries in the party. But the conditions have been set that 10 district secretaries should propose and 10 district secretaries should follow the proposal to file nominations for the general secretary election," he added.

Intervening this, the court questioned whether these conditions were being followed beforehand.

Responding to this, counsel Guru Krishnakumar replied that no and said that these conditions have been brought for the respondents own benefit.

"The eligibility criteria for contesting in the general secretary election are against the intra party democracy and if the appellant does not have support in the party, if an election is held before a retired judge, then all will know who does not have support," he submitted in the court.

As senior counsels PS Raman and Guru Krishnakumar representing O Panneerselvam completed their arguments, the court adjourned the hearing to April 24.

Senior counsel C Manishankar, Abdul Saleem and AK Sriram for R Vaithilingam, PH Manoj Pandian and JCD Prabhakar are yet to argue.

Thereafter, senior counsel CS Vaidyanathan and Vijay Narayan would be making submissions on behalf of AIADMK and Edappadi K Palaniswami.