Plea against coordinator & joint coordinator polls dismissed

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Monday dismissed a suit filed for declaring null and void the election conducted for the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator in AIADMK on December 6, 2021.

Justice CV Karthikeyan passed the orders on dismissing the civil suit preferred by former AIADMK MP KC Palanisamy. The judge passed the orders on the ground that Palanisamy has no locus to move the suit and the suit is unmaintainable.

The judge came to this conclusion after the AIADMK's counsel submitted that Palanisamy was not even a primary member of the defendant party and he was removed from the party for having been involved in anti-party activities.

When the plaintiff submitted that the decision of AIADMK leaders to dismiss him was not communicated, the judge asked whether any other petitions are pending before some other courts.

Palanisamy's counsel informed the court that a plea against his client's removal from the party is pending before the Delhi HC and another petition challenging the AIADMK party elections is pending before the Supreme Court.

On recording either side's submissions, the judge dismissed the petition and observed that there is no bar for trial courts to dispose of the pleas regarding the AIADMK party elections.

Recently, the AIADMK General Council passed a resolution to abolish the coordinator and joint coordinator posts. In a GC meeting held on July 11, the former CM Edappadi K Palaniswami was elected as interim general secretary.

When a single judge passed a status quo ante order on August 17 in a suit filed by O Panneerselvam challenging the decisions of the July 11 GC meeting, a division bench set aside the order of a single judge.