HC restrains AIADMK from declaring General Secretary election results

Justice K. Kumaresh Babu says he will hear all applications for interim relief on Wednesday and pronounce orders within two days thereafter and till then, the results should not be declared.

The Madras High Court on Sunday restrained All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) from declaring the results of the election to the post of general secretary till the disposal of applications filed by P.H. Manoj Pandian and two other expelled leaders against the election process.

Justice K. Kumaresh Babu passed the restraint order after deciding to continue the hearing on the interim plea applications on Wednesday, also a holiday for the court in view of Telugu New Year. The judge said, he would pronounce orders by Friday if arguments are concluded on Wednesday.

The judge had held a special sitting on Sunday since Mr. Pandian, R. Vaithilingam and J.C.D. Prabhakar had moved urgent applications to restrain the party from going ahead with the election process pursuant to the notification issued on Friday stating that nominations could be filed on Saturday and Sunday.

Senior Counsel P.S. Raman, C. Manishankar and A.K. Sriram argued for the applicants and accused the party of judicial overreach since it issued the election notification when their earlier applications for staying the July 11 general council resolutions were still pending.

On the other hand, Senior Counsel C.S. Vaidyanathan and Vijay Narayan, representing AIADMK, argued that the court should not interfere in the election process after it had begun and contended that there was absolutely no legal bar for the party to issue the election notification and therefore it had been issued validly.

After hearing both sides for about two hours, the judge felt that the present applications filed against the election notification could be heard along with the pending applications against the July 11, 2022 general council resolutions on Wednesday and disposed of by way of a common order.

Therefore, he decided to make a request to the Acting Chief Justice T. Raja to permit a special hearing on Wednesday so that all the counsel could argue for the entire day without any hassles, due to it being a holiday for the High Court and he could pronounce orders within two days thereafter.