CHENNAI: A division bench of Madras high court on Monday refused to intervene in the July 11 general council meeting of AIADMK while advising a contempt petitioner and former chief minister, O Panneerselvam to approach the single judge regarding the issue.
The bench consisting of Justices M Duraiswamy and Sunder Mohan made it clear that the order passed on June 23, late at night, was applicable only to the general council meeting held on that day and not for future meetings.
Refusing to either stay the election of permanent presidium chairman or restrain the party from holding the next general council meeting, the judges told senior counsels Arvind Pandian representing Panneerselvam and AK Sriram appearing for the petitioner M Shanmugam to approach the single judge with a separate plea for an injunction against the July 11 meeting.
They also said the scope of the original appeal cannot be enlarged regarding the plea for staying at the next general council meeting.
The judges posted the contempt petition for July 7.
The contempt petition, filed by Shanmugam, who is a general council member, sought to take action against AIADMK leaders, Palaniswami, CVe Shanmugam, Tamilmagan Hussain, KP Munusamy, D Jayakumar, and Dindigul Sreenivasan for electing Tamilmagan Hussain as permanent presidium chairman and announcing the date for the next meeting of the general council.
The petitioner contended that these decisions of the meeting were a ‘deliberate and flagrant’ violation of the order of the division bench, passed after a midnight hearing of an appeal.
He also sought a stay on holding the next general council meeting.