The Madras High Court on Sunday conducted a special hearing to resolve the dispute between former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) and O Paneerselvam (OPS) of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).
A single bench of Justice K Kumaresh Babu was hearing the matter.
Three expelled AIADMK members from the OPS camp, Manoj Pandian, R Vaithilingam, and JCD Prabhakar, moved the high court for an urgent hearing to put off the General Secretary elections the party had set for on March 26.
The hearing on another application filed by the trio challenging their expulsion, the resolutions made at the party’s General Council meeting on July 11 last year, and an interim prayer to prevent the party from calling for General Secretary elections was delayed until April 11 on March 17.
But, on Friday evening, the party issued a call for nominations for the position of General Secretary.
EPS submitted his nomination papers on Saturday. The petitioners then approached the High Court for an urgent hearing. The nominations concluded at 3 p.m. on Sunday, and the party had received only one nomination since then, that of EPS.
Senior Advocate PS Raman, who represented Pandian, questioned why the party hurried to hold elections while the case was still in court, calling it an abuse of the legal process. He asked the bench to delay the March 26 elections as an interim relief.
But, EPS and AIADMK have stated that the Court cannot intervene in the internal affairs of the party.
They also stated that the process leading up to the polling had already begun and that it needed to be finished immediately in accordance with procedure.
Furthermore, the election results will be subject to the Court’s final orders. As a result, they maintained, there was no way to postpone the polls.
But, Justice Babu questioned why there was such a haste to proclaim the polls when the matter was sub judice. He then inquired whether the announcement of results might be postponed.
“I am not going to stay the election. But I am asking you to not declare results until the next hearing,” the bench remarked.
Appearing for EPS and the General Council respectively, Senior Advocate CS Vaidyanathan and Advocate Vijay Narayan expressed reluctance at the suggestion.
Then, the single bench asked if they could at least ensure that the candidate who was elected as General Secretary did not assume office for a week. Meanwhile, the court said it could hear all the related pending applications on the issue and pass orders.
It was then that the counsel for the party gave an undertaking that the election results will not be declared until March 24, 2023.
