CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday raised questions on the legal competency of headquarters office-bearers of the AIADMK to convene the general council (GC) meeting and adjourned the case seeking a stay on the July 11 GC meeting by a day.
Justice Krishnan Ramasamy, before whom the suits filed by party leader O Panneerselvam and another functionary P Vairamuthu came up for hearing, asked senior counsel Vijay Narayan, appearing for Edappadi K Palaniswami, whether the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator have lapsed and whether the headquarters office-bearers have the powers to convene a GC meeting.
He also wanted to know the time gap needed between sending of invitation and the date of meeting, and who shall sign the invitation and what was the precedent. The judge ordered Palaniswami’s counsel to file a counter with answers to these questions and adjourned the hearing to Friday.
Senior counsel Guru Krishnakumar, representing Panneerselvam, said only the coordinator and joint coordinator have the powers to convene the meeting, and the headquarters office-bearers, on whose name the unsigned invitation was sent, were an ‘undefined body’ without powers as per the bylaws of the party.
Vijay Narayan, however, contended that the GC meeting can be convened by headquarters office-bearers as 2,190 of 2,665 GC members have submitted signed memorandums demanding the meeting. Referring to the agenda of election of interim general secretary, Narayan said the democratic process within the party will have to go on, and added that the Supreme Court has "expressly said" the meeting can be held. Senior counsel AK Sriram, appearing for Vairamuthu, questioned the validity of the invitation for the meeting.
Contempt plea against EPS binned
At the outset, the judge wondered as to what was left for him to decide when the Supreme Court had said the meeting can go ahead in accordance with the law.
Earlier in the day, in a shot in the arm for Palaniswami camp, a division bench of Justices M Duraiswamy and Sunder Mohan, who had restrained the June 23 general council from passing resolutions other than the 23 pre-decided ones, summarily dismissed the contempt petition filed by GC member M Shanmugam against Palaniswami and others for violation of the bench’s order passed on the wee hours of June 23.
Citing the Supreme Court order staying the proceedings of the division bench of the HC, the judges dismissed the contempt petition and sub-applications seeking to grant stay on the election of Tamil Magan Hussain as permanent presidium chairman of the AIADMK and his announcement on July 11 meeting.
However the bench said Shanmugam can revive his case if he is successful in the special leave petition (SLP) filed by Palaniswami in the Supreme Court. In another case, a PIL praying for orders to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to freeze the two-leaves poll symbol of the AIADMK until the infighting ends was dismissed by the first bench of Chief Justice (CJ) Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N Mala with cost of Rs25,000.
The petitioner, PA Joseph, founder of JJ Party, said the infighting is leading to disruption of public order and peace but he could not substantiate his contention when the bench asked him for proof. The CJ bench called it 'publicity litigation petition' and dismissed it.
Selfishness of a few left cadre without two-leaves: Former AIADMK leader VK Sasikala
VILLUPURAM: Former AIADMK leader VK Sasikala on Wednesday said that none had the right to change AIADMK bylaws every year. She was speaking at Marakanam during her statewide tour to meet supporters.
The AIADMK cadre were being forced to contest elections without the two-leaves symbol owing to the selfishness of a few people. "Such individuals are playing tricks to cling on to powerful posts and aren’t allowing cadre to rise to those posts," she said.
The DMK was once jealous of the AIADMK, but now it was happy at the developments within the AIADMK. The wish of the DMK, however, would not come true as AIADMK had cadre who believed in the party, she said.