CHENNAI: The appeal petitions filed by deposed AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam and his supporters challenging a single judge’s order on the general secretary polls of the party will be taken up for hearing by a division bench on Thursday.
When appeals filed by OPS came up for hearing before the bench of Justices R Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq on Wednesday, the counsels representing OPS and his supporters R Vaithilingam, PH Manoj Pandian and JCD Prabhakar sought the court to take up the matter in the afternoon. They said that since the petitions filed by OPS alone were listed, other petitions were also to be listed for hearing together.
However, the bench declined the request and said all the petitions would be taken up together on Thursday and directed the Registry to list them accordingly.
Embattled Panneerselvam and his supporters moved the division bench with the appeals as soon as Justice K Kumaresh Babu announced his verdict on Tuesday on the interim applications filed by OPS and the three others.
Rejecting their petitions, the judge said they have no prima facie case, the balance of convenience in favour of them in granting the stay on the general secretary elections.
The judge also held the resolutions of the July 11, 2022 general council meeting to the effect of abolishing the posts of coordinator, and joint coordinator, electing EPS as interim general secretary and reviving the post of general secretary as valid.
He also observed that if an injunction was granted against the general secretary polls, it would affect the party’s functioning, which has about 1.55 crore primary members, and leave it without a leader.
While refusing to grant stay, Justice Kumaresh Babu said he would decide on the validity of the particular resolution which enabled the expulsion of OPS and his supporters from the party along with the civil suits challenging the amendments and resolutions of the July 11 meeting.
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