SC agrees to hear Palaniswami’s petition on July 6

The Supreme Court on Monday tentatively agreed to hear on July 6 a petition filed by former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, challenging a Madras High Court order restraining the AIADMK general council from taking any decision on the party's leadership question. Mr. Palaniswami argued that the decision of the Madras High Court, pronounced after a midnight hearing, was "flawed, fallacious, non-est and untenable in law. It interfered with the inner democratic working of the AIADMK, which is against the law and contradicts common sense and cannot be allowed to stand". He contended that the "dual leadership" experiment, under which he had shared power with O. Panneerselvam, had failed, which was quite evident from the poll results. The party members wanted him to take over and steer a "single leadership" mechanism. The petition was mentioned by senior advocate C.S. Vaidyanathan and advocate Balaji Srinivasan for early hearing before a Vacation Bench led by Justice Indira Banerjee. The petition said the High Court order created a "power of veto". "The order, if allowed to stand, will cripple the inner party democracy and free, fair and unhindered discussions that is the ethos of the AIADMK," the petition said. It said Mr. Palaniswami had emerged as the "most popular leader of the party after [an] overwhelming majority [of] members of the party have comprehended the confidence in his leadership".