Court can’t interfere with internal affairs of party.
Justice Krishnan Ramaswamy delivered the verdict on July 11 morning, which allowed the EPS faction to hold the GC meet, the supreme decision making body of the main opposition party in Tamil Nadu.
The Madras High Court has given the green signal for the AIADMK General Council (GC) meeting to be held today. The meeting proposes to revive the interim general secretary post and abolish the dual leadership posts of coordinator as well as joint coordinator posts.
While counsels of both sides seated with bated breath, the judge read out the operative portion of the order.
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Justice Krishnan Ramasamy who pronounced the verdict minutes before the meeting’s scheduled start said that as the majority of AIADMK members are in favour of conducting the meeting, therefore, there are no illegalities. However, the aggrieved parties can approach the court if they found illegalities in the proceedings of the meeting, the judge said.
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Holding that the court cannot interfere with the squabbles of a political party, the court rejected a plea from AIADMK leader and former Co-ordinator O Panneerselvam (OPS) to stay the conduct of the meeting at a marriage hall here, virtually making way for rival leader Edappady K Palaniswami‘s elevation as a possible single leader of the party.
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Embattled OPS has unsuccessfully waged a legal battle to stall the general council meeting in order to put the brakes on the seemingly unstoppable Palaniswami. He fielded senior counsels Guru Krishnakumar, PH Arvindh Pandian, and AK Sriram — who made a vocal case for staying the general council meeting by playing up the procedural lapses and lack of authority of the office-bearers at the headquarters for convening the meeting. They also explained about a violation of the party byelaws in hurriedly convening the General Council meeting.
Vijay Narayan and SR Rajagopal, senior counsels appearing for Palaniswami, explained how the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator had lapsed after the election for both posts in December 2021 was not ratified in the June 23rd General Council meeting.
Source : The New Indian Express
