Chennai, Mar 29 (IANS): The Madras High Court division bench headed by Justice R. Mahadevan will hear the appeal submitted by deposed AIADMK coordinator and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, O. Panneerselvam (OPS) on Thursday.
The appeal was filed against the single bench of the Madras High Court disposing of the petitions submitted by OPS and his associates, Manoj Pandian, J.C.D. Prabhakar, and R. Vaithalingam on Tuesday.
The single bench judge of K. Kumaresh Babu had disposed of the petitions by the former Chief Minister and his associates against the AIADMK general council meeting held on July 11, 2022. The court had also cleared the election of his rival and AIADMK interim general secretary, Edappadi K. Palaniswami as the party general secretary.
A division bench of the Madras High Court comprising Justices R. Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq dispensed with the production of the certified order copy of the single bench Judge, Justice R. Kumaresh Babu in the case. The court also directed the registry to list the appeal by Panneerselvam for Thursday.
The appeal of the associates of OPS, H. Manoj Pandian, R. Vaithalingam, and J.C.D. Prabhakar is also listed for Thursday. When the appeal for OPS came up for hearing on Wednesday, the counsel for the former Chief Minister requested the court to hear the appeal by Wednesday afternoon as the other three appeals were not listed till that time. The court, however, refused to accept this and listed the appeal of OPS for Thursday along with the other three petitions.
It is to be recalled that after a bitter power struggle to take over the reins of the AIADMK, the interim general secretary of the party, Palaniswami has won the first round of the battle against Panneerselvam, and has taken over as the general secretary of the AIADMK. EPS is the third general secretary of the party after the founder leader, M.G. Ramachandran (MGR), and J. Jayalalithaa, both legendary figures in Tamil Nadu politics.
The EPS camp is expecting a final victory after the appeal of Panneerselvam is heard by the division bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday.