The Madras High Court on Friday refused to pass an ex-parte interim order against the resolutions adopted by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general council meet on July 11, 2022 expelling former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam from the party’s primary membership and appointing Edappadi K Palaniswami as its interim general secretary.
Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy told senior counsel Guru Krishnakumar, representing expelled leader P.H. Manoj Pandian who had moved a civil suit, that he was not inclined to pass an interim injunction, restraining the party from giving effect to the resolutions, without hearing the party and Mr. Palaniswami.
The judge directed advocate Gowtham Kumar to take notices on behalf of AIADMK and Mr. Palaniswami who were represented by senior counsel Vijay Narayan and C.S. Vaidyanathan respectively and make sure that their counter affidavits were served on Mr. Pandian’s counsel S. Elambharathi at least two days before the next hearing on March 17.
As a measure of abundant caution, the judge made it clear in his order that for the present, he was not expressing any opinion on the merits of the civil suit challenging the general council resolutions and leaves it to be decided after the filing of counter affidavits by the defendants.
Mr. Pandian, a former Member of Parliament and a sitting Member of the Legislative Assembly, had challenged the resolutions which expelled Mr. Panneerselvam and his supporters, including the plaintiff, from the party and abolished the posts of coordinator and Joint coordinator.
