HC reserves orders in OPS' suit against AIADMK GC meet

CHENNAI: Justice G Jayachandran of Madras High Court reserved orders on an appeal preferred by AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam against the order of a single judge who cleared decks for OPS' rival Edappadi K Palaniswami to conduct the General Council meeting of AIADMK on July 11.

The judge reserved the orders on Thursday after hearing the arguments of senior counsels S Vijay Narayanan, SR Rajagopal, and Narmatha Sampath for EPS and his supporters, as well as Senior Counsels Guru Krisnamkumar and Arvind Pandian for OPS and senior advocate Sri Ram for Vairamuthu, a supporter of AIADMK.

On day two of the hearings, the judge insisted the counsels keep their arguments only on his question of whether the July 11 GC meeting was held as per the bye-laws and was the election of presidium chairman was in line with the bye-laws of AIADMK.

Senior Advocate Vijay Narayan submitted that the 2432 GC members are in favour of electing Edappadi Palaniswami as the interim general secretary of the AIADMK party.

"While the majority of the party is going in one direction, the plaintiff / OPS is going in another direction, " the senior counsel submitted.

However, OPS's counsel Guru Krishnakumar argued that 2432 GC members are not the representatives of the AIADMK members.

Vijay Narayan countered that when Sasikala was elected as the interim general secretary of AIADMK, the post became vacant due to her subsequent incarceration in 2017.

"The headquarters office bearers called for a meeting in August 2017. Therefore, we conducted a GC meeting in September 2017 and brought the coordinator and joint coordinator posts after abolishing the general secretary post. In the same way, now the headquarters office bearers had called for the meeting, and majority GC members want the defendant / EPS to lead the party, " Narayan submitted.

However, senior lawyer Guru Krishnakumar submitted that the scenario is different now and no vacancy arose for coordinator and joint coordinator positions.

Senior Counsel SR Rajagopal, appearing for EPS, submitted that the plaintiff had arrayed him as the defendant and the suit is unmaintainable. Senior advocate Narmatha Sampath, for AIADMK headquarters secretaries, pointed out there is no impediment in law to conduct the meeting for which this HC had an occasion to appreciate the same set of facts stated that the friction between two wings in the political party cannot injunct a meeting which is otherwise valid.

Recording these submissions, the judge reserved orders.