Supreme Court upholds Madras High Court order paving way for election of E Palaniswami as AIADMK head

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) [Thiru K Palaniswamy v. M Shanmugam and ors]..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. The Madras High Court order that was upheld had set aside a single-judge order that had, in effect, quashed the appointment of Edapaddi K Palaniswamy as interim general secretary.The top court with reference to the latter, made it clear that," ... questions of balance of convenience and irreparable injury in relation to the applications under consideration could not have been examined with reference to the consequences or fallout of the meeting dated 11.07.2022. Moreover, the authority of the General Council to deal with the relevant matters could not have been brushed aside with reference to the strength of the primary membership of the party. It is but clear that the learned Single Judge has not kept in view the relevant tests as expounded in the decisions above-referred." Since the matter concerns the internal management of a political party, the balance of convenience could not been in favour of granting any interim injunction on the Pannerselvam camp, it was explained. "It gets perforce reiterated that if the order as passed by the learned Single Judge was to remain in force until decision of the suits, it would have been drastically detrimental to the interest of political party in question, which is a recognised political party with the Election Commission of India .. In the present case, when General Council is shown to be the apex body of the party, taking any exception to the meeting of the General Council could have neither been countenanced nor interfered with by way of temporary injunction.".The top court last month had reserved its verdict in the matter. 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.In the first round of litigation before the Supreme Court, the Madras High Court had been ordered to decide afresh the plea by Panneerselvam challenging the changes made to the by-laws of the AIADMK..On the last date of hearing, the apex court had directed the AIADMK to convene a General Council meeting to select candidates for the upcoming by-poll to the Erode East Assembly constituency. It specified that the same was an interim arrangement, even as the judgment on the leadership tussle between EPS and OPS remains reserved.As per the top court's order, O Panneerselvam's expulsion from the party was set aside for the time being..Convene General Council meeting to select bye-poll candidates: Supreme Court to rival AIADMK factions.Senior Advocates Ranjit Kumar and Guru Krishna Kumar appeared for the Pannerslevam faction before the top court. Senior Advocates C Aryama Sundaram, CS Vaidyanathan, Mukul Rohtagi and Atul Chitale appeared for the Palaniswamy faction.[Read judgment]