The Supreme Court on Wednesday, July 6, stayed the Madras High Court’s division bench order restraining the AIADMK General Council from passing any resolutions. The Supreme Court bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Krishna Murari said that the AIADMK General Council meeting scheduled for July 11 can go on as per schedule, and in accordance with the law. This means that the SC has removed any kind of restrictions on the meeting, which has paved the way for the party to amend its bye-laws to opt for a single leadership. The Supreme Court has asked E Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam to sort out their differences.
The Supreme Court was hearing a special leave petition moved by Edappadi Palaniswami against the June 23 order of the Madras High Court, which had restrained the AIADMK general council from amending the party bye-laws. This comes as a setback for O Panneerselvam, who has strongly contested against the single leadership and had insisted on his position as the co-coordinator of the AIADMK.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday observed that the division bench ‘exceeded its jurisdiction’ by passing order restraining the meeting from changing its bye-laws. Edappadi Palaniswami had moved the Supreme Court against the Madras High Court order passed on June 23, which stayed the passing of resolutions in the AIADMK General Council meeting. EPS had submitted that the Madras High Court’s order restraining the General Council from passing any resolutions amounts to judicial interference with a political party's internal functioning.
The dispute within the AIADMK is connected to the changing of the dual-leadership structure of AIADMK, where OPS and EPS were leading it as Coordinator and Joint Coordinator, respectively. The EPS group has been pressing for unitary leadership. The first General Council meeting, held on June 23, saw as many as 2,342 members raise the demand to discuss single leadership, following which the date for the next meeting was set for July 11.
Later, on June 28, OPS approached the Election Commission, claiming that vested interests were behind the reemergence of the single leadership demand within the party. In a nine-page memorandum, OPS said that the party bye-laws were amended in December 2021, making it clear that the coordinator (OPS) and joint-coordinator EPS could only be elected by primary members.
The single-leadership issue within the AIADMK was reignited recently after 2017, when former minister D Jayakumar stated in a press meet on June 15, that the demand for unitary leadership was put forth in a district secretary meeting. OPS vehemently opposed this comment and said that the issue should have been discussed at the headquarters meeting, and not in a press meet.