Madras HC refuses to stop July 11 AIADMK General Council meet

Chennai, July 4

The Madras High Court on Monday refused to stall the AIADMK General Council meeting slated for July 11.

A bench of Justices M. Duraisamy and Sunder Mohan made it clear that the order passed by them at 4.40 a.m. on June 2 was only with respect to the meeting held on that day, and directed the advocate of AIADMK State Council member, M. Shanmugham, to approach the single bench of the court, if necessary.

It also provided time till Thursday for senior counsel Vijay Narayanan, representing party leader and former Chief Minister K. Palaniswami, to file counter-affidavits to new applications. The counters are to be filed to a series of three applications taken out by Shanmugham in his original appeal pending before the court.

One of the three applications was to stall the July 11 General Council meeting of the party, the second was to stay the appointment of A. Tamilmagan Hussain as the Presidium Chairman, and the third was to punish the top leadership of the party for having allegedly defied the June 23 order of the division bench.

Senior counsel P.H. Aravind Pandian, representing senior party leader and former Chief Minister, O. Panneerselvam, told the court that the appointment of Hussain as Presidium Chairman amounted to contempt. He also argued that the announcement of the next General Council meeting by the Presidium Chairman was in defiance of the court order.

Pandian also contended that the division bench had, on June 23, made it clear that no decision should be taken on any issue but for the 23 draft resolutions approved by Panneerselvam.

However, the party leaders went ahead to appoint Hussain, whose name was proposed by Palaniswami, as the Presidium Chairman.

The bench adjourned the hearing to Thursday as the Supreme Court was also slated to hear an appeal filed by the Palaniswami faction against the division bench's June 23 order.