Madras High Court recalls order in favour of Edappadi Palaniswami’s AIADMK leadership

The Madras High Court on Thursday (August 21, 2025) recalled an interim order granted by it on Tuesday (August 19) in favour of AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami in a suit pending before a city civil court in Chennai, questioning his authority to lead the party.

Justice P.B. Balaji recalled the interim order as a caveat that had been filed by the plaintiff S. Suriyamoorthy, requiring an opportunity of hearing to be given to him before passing any orders on Mr. Palaniswami’s revision plea, was not brought to his notice when the interim stay was granted. Mr. Palaniswami’s counsel himself brought to the notice of the court that the presence of the caveat had gone unnoticed when the matter was listed for hearing on Tuesday.

The judge, however, recorded the submission of the plaintiff’s counsel M. Velmurugan that he was willing to argue the case on Monday (August 25), and decided to take a call on grant of interim stay of the civil court proceedings after hearing the submisions from both sides next week.

The issue relates to a suit filed by Suriyamoorthy before the IV Assistant City Civil Court in 2022, alleging that Mr. Palaniswami was leading the party in violation of the party bylaws. In 2023, the latter had filed an application urging the court to reject the suit as the plaintiff was not a member of the party anymore.

However, the civil court judge K. Sivasakthivel Kannan dismissed the application on July 31, 2025, and refused to reject the suit at the threshold. It was challenging this order that Mr. Palaniswami had now approached the High Court by way of a revision seeking stay of the order as well as the proceedings before the civil court.