MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday granted time to former CM O Panneerselvam to file counter affidavit in a plea moved by the AIADMK seeking direction to permit the party to jointly operate the bank locker in Madurai, which holds the golden armour of Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar, along with the caretaker of Pasumpon Thevar Ninaivalayam, without any interference from OPS.
AIADMK, represented by its treasurer Dindigul C Sreenivasan, filed the petition ahead of the Thevar Jayanthi, which is scheduled to be celebrated from October 27 to 30 this year. Every year, the party's treasurer and the caretaker of the Ninaivalayam would take the 13 kg armour from the locker, adorn it on the statue of Thevar at Pasumpom, and return it to the locker at the end of the celebrations.
When a petition seeking similar relief was filed by Sreenivasan last year, OPS intervened in the matter citing the dispute between the two factions and the pending court cases over the party leadership and general council resolutions. To avoid law and order problems, the court had passed an interim order directing the District Revenue Officers (DROs) of Madurai and Ramanathapuram to take responsibility for handling the armour during the Thevar Jayanthi celebrations that year. While the said petition, which is the main petition, is still pending, Sreenivasan moved the present petition seeking to fix an early hearing date on the main petition and also an interim direction to permit him to take custody of the armour for smooth conduct of this year's celebration.
The senior counsel Vijay Narayan, appearing on behalf of AIADMK in the plea, pointed out that all the pending court cases mentioned last year have ended in the party's favour and the appeals filed by OPS and his supporters in the Principal Seat, against the general council meeting and resolutions through which they were expelled from the party, were also binned.
Hence, the right to operate the locker for taking custody of the golden armour during Thevar Jayanthi vests with the present party treasurer Dindigul C Sreenivasan, he added. Though the same was communicated to the Bank of India- Anna Nagar Branch, which contains the said locker, the bank has not yet approved their request to operate the locker, he added.
When Justice GR Swaminathan inquired about the bank's stand on the matter, the counsel appearing for the bank submitted that the bank authorities are yet to take a decision on the party's request. The counsel appearing for Panneerselvam also sought time to file a counter in the petition. Following this, the judge adjourned the case to Tuesday.