Tamil Nadu: VK Sasikala's Plea To Declare That She Is The AIADMK's Interim General Secretary Dismissed By Madras High Court

A Division Bench of the Madras High Court comprising Justices R Subramanian and N Senthilkumar today (5 December) rejected a plea by VK Sasikala to declare that she is the interim general secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).

According to a report by The Hindu, Sasikala, a close aide of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, was made the party's interim general secretary on 29 December 2016, after her death.

She was removed from the position by the party's general council on 12 September 2017 after her imprisonment in a disproportionate assets case. During this meeting, O Panneerselvam and Edappadi Palaniswami were appointed as the Coordinator and Joint Coordinator of the party, respectively.

Sasikala had initially challenged the decision at an Additional City Civil Court in Chennai. She contended that the convening of the general council meeting was illegal and against the procedure mentioned in the party's bylaws.

In 2022, Palaniswami, Panneerselvam and S Semmalai filed independent applications asking the court to reject her complaint. Sasikala filed a plea to amend her complaint.

While the three independent applications were allowed by the court, her plea to amend her complaint was rejected and so she approached the High Court with three appeal suits and a civil revision petition.

All of these were dismissed by the Bench.

Later, Panneerselvam and his supporters were expelled in a July 2022 meeting of the general council. Palaniswami, who was made the interim general secretary at the time, has now become the party's general secretary.

The Panneerselvam camp has challenged the expulsion.