Today, Madras High Court dismissed to stay the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary elections and rejected the interim applications filed by former Tamil Nadu deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam (OPS) and three other expelled AIADMK party members.

The bench of Justice K Kumaresh Babu rejected the interim applications filed by OPS, PH Manoj Pandian, R Vaithilingam, and JCD Prabhakar, seeking stay on the general secretary polls and also praying for directions to restrain AIADMK from giving effect to its July 11, 2022 general council resolutions.

The Counsel member of OPS, C Manishankar and Adv. Abdul Saleem approached the division bench presided by Justices R Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq challenging the single judge’s order and seeking an urgent hearing on their appeal.

The division bench agreed to hear them on Wednesday.

In the contested July 11 meeting, the general council of AIADMK had abolished the post of the coordinator and joint coordinator and instead declared OPS' political rival and former TN Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami as the interim general secretary of the party. The Council had expelled OPS, Pandian and others from the party claiming they had indulged in anti-party activities. 

Senior counsel Guru Krishnakumar, who appeared for Pandian, had earlier argued that the party did not have the power to take extreme steps such as expelling primary members without even giving them a fair hearing. 

OPS and the others had argued that rules had been amended in favor of EPS, who had filed his nomination for the post of general secretary and was likely to be elected. They said that OPS was ready to contest the general secretary elections if given a chance. 

However, EPS' counsel, Senior Advocate CS Vaidyanathan had told the Court that OPS and the others were trying to scuttle the voice of the party members by opposing the elections and the general council resolutions. Senior Counsel Vijay Narayan, who appeared for the AIADMK, had also argued that courts cannot interfere with the internal matters of a political party.