A Division Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday decided to take up for final hearing on Thursday the appeals preferred by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader Edappadi K Palaniswami against a single judge's order in favour of the other leader O Panneerselvam.
The Division Bench of Justices M. Duraiswamy and Sunder Mohan took the decision after senior counsel P.H. Arvindh Pandian, representing Mr. Panneerselvam, said, he had serious objections to grant of interim stay but was willing to advance arguments directly on the appeals.
Senior counsel Vijay Narayan, representing Mr. Palaniswami, said, he had no objection to arguing the appeals directly but requested the court to take them up for final hearing at the earliest since there was a deadlock in the functioning of the party due to the single judge's order.
He suggested that the final hearing could be held on Thursday and the judges accepted his suggestion. They asked both the senior counsel as well as the third senior counsel Guru Krishnakumar and advocate A.K. Sriram to keep their arguments as short as possible.
The appeals had been preferred against orders passed by Justice G Jayachandran on August 17 nullfying the July 11 general council meet when Mr. Palaniswami was elected as interim general secretary and Mr. Panneerselvam was expelled from primary membership of the party.
The single judge had ordered status quo ante as on June 23, while disposing three interim applications filed by Mr. Panneerselvam and general council member 'Amman' Vairamuthu alias P Vairamuthu against the July 11 meet, and hence the present appeals.
