Madras High Court judge recuses from hearing civil suits from EPS vs OPS camps
The judge directed the registry to place the matter before the Chief Justice of the High Court to list the batch of cases before some other bench.
Madras High Court (File)
CHENNAI: Justice G Jayachandran of the Madras High Court recused himself from hearing a batch of civil suits between AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) and expelled leader O Panneerselvam (OPS) over the party’s general council meeting held in 2022.
A batch of civil suits moved by OPS and other expelled AIADMK leaders including Vaithilingam, JCD Prabhakar, and Manoj Pandian challenging the AIADMK general council meeting, which was held on July 11, 2022, was listed before Justice G Jayachandran.
The judge had already issued an interim order declaring that the general council meet electing EPS as the general secretary of the party and adopting resolutions to expel OPS and others, had no legal effect (which was later revoked by the Supreme Court). Even as the top court sent back the original plea to be heard, Justice Jayachandran has now recused himself from the case.
The judge directed the registry to place the matter before the Chief Justice of the High Court to list the batch of cases before some other bench.
On July 11, 2022, in the AIADMK general council meet held in Chennai, EPS was elected as the general secretary of the party. Resolutions were also passed to expel OPS and other leaders including Vaithilingam, JCD Prabhakar and Manoj Pandian from the party. Aggrieved by this, OPS and general council member P Vairamuthu moved petitions challenging the council meeting.
On August 18, 2022, after hearing the parties, Justice G Jayachandran had declared that the council meeting had no legal effect. Challenging the order, EPS moved the Supreme Court and got a favourable verdict.
