Chennai, Sep 2 (IANS): A division bench of the Madras High Court on Friday set aside a single-judge bench order of August 17 in favour of former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam(OPS) in the leadership tussle of AIADMK.

Justices M. Duraiswamy and Sunder Mohan allowed appeals challenging the single bench judge, G. Jayachandran's order nullifying the general council meet of July 11 when Edappadi K. Palaniswami(EPS) was elected party general secretary. This meeting had also expelled Paneerselvam (OPS) from the party.

Palaniswamy had, in his plea, stated that the single bench had ordered status quo of the June 23 general council meeting when the posts of both Panneerselvam as Coordinator of the party and himself as Joint coordinator had lapsed. He told the division bench that he had rushed to the bench as it was impossible to work together with Panneerselvam.

Notably, Paneerselvam had consistently maintained that he was the coordinator of the party and that his term would continue till December 2026 while Palaniswami argued that both their posts lapsed on June 23.

The single bench of Justice G. Jayachandran had stated that the draft resolution of the June 23 meeting did not contain any resolution that required ratification. It had also ordered that any general council meeting in the future should be convened jointly by both the leaders.

The faction close to EPS expressed happiness over the division bench order and former Minister D. Jayakumar told IANS that justice has been achieved.