Supreme Court upholds Madras High Court order paving way for election of E Palaniswami as AIADMK head : SC
The Supreme court passed a judgement on 23rd February, 2023 This was seen in the case of Thiru K Palaniswamy vs M Shanmugam civil appeal no. 1392 of 2023 and the case was presided over by Hon’ble Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy
FACTS OF THE CASE:
The batch of petitions included an appeal by the O Panneerselvam camp against a division bench Madras High Court ruling that had upheld the resolution passed at the general council meeting expelling him and appointing Palaniswami as the interim General Secretary.
The genesis of the matter lies in a leadership crisis in the AIADMK after the party’s defeat in the State elections in 2021, after which a section of its office-bearers had sought to amend the party’s by-laws so that there will be a single leader for the party.
After the passing of former Chief Minister and the party’s General Secretary J Jayalalithaa, and the arrest of the subsequent interim General Secretary V Sasikala, Palaniswami and Panneerselvam had held the posts of Joint Coordinator and Coordinator of the party, respectively. Their tenures, as per Panneerselvam, was supposed to lapse on June 23, 2022.
However, the party held a General Council meeting on July 11, 2022 which passed resolutions to abolish these posts and restore the post of General Secretary. This effectively left Palaniswami at the helm. In the same meeting, Panneerselvam was removed from the post of Coordinator and from its primary membership by the Palaniswami camp .
Subsequently, there were disputes over who could use the party headquarters and office etc., leading to present batch of pleas before the top court after parties were aggrieved with the Madras High Court’s rulings in that regard.
JUDGEMENT :
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a Madras High Court order setting aside the cancellation of the election of Edappadi K Palaniswami as interim General Secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).
A Bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy while reading out the operative part of the judgment, said,
“We have upheld the order of the Division Bench of the High Court dated 2.9.22, and made our earlier interim order permanent. We have not dealt with the matter of resolutions before the party that were being heard by the single-judge. We leave it open for the said resolutions to be dealt with in accordance in law. We do not seek it necessary to allow the impleadment applications.”
The Court stated that its interim order passed on July 6 last year, which stayed a High Court order restraining amendment to the AIADMK by-laws, would be made absolute.
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Judgement reviewed by Drishti verma