Madras High Court reserves order on AIADMK plea against RS MP Sasikala Pushpa

The Madras High Court on Friday reserved its order on an application by AIADMK seeking to dismiss a plea of Rajya Sabha MP Sasikala Pushpa, who has been expelled from the party, to restrain it from appointing late chief minister Jayalalithaa’s aide V K Sasikala as party General Secretary.

Justice K Kalyanasundaram reserved its order on the application filed by AIADMK Presidium Chairman E Madhusudanan after hearing arguments by senior counsels K M Vijayan and V Prakash, who appeared for Pushpa and her husband Lingeswara Thilagan, and R Krishna Moorthy for AIADMK.

Pushpa in her suit has submitted that the primary eligibility to contest the election to the post of General Secretary was that the contestant must have been a primary member of the party continuously for five years as per the AIADMK bye-laws and Sasikala did not fulfil this norm.

Responding to the AIADMK counsel questioning her locus standi in moving the court as she had already been expelled from the party, Pushpa’s counsel submitted that knowledge of expulsion from the party differs from official communication.

Only when an official order of expulsion was issued, it can be challenged, he said, referring to the AIADMK counsel’s poser why Pushpa has so far not contested her expulsion.

Moorthy argued that by having knowledge of her expulsion from the party itself, Pushpa has lost locus standi for filing the suit.

Replying to the contention on five-year norm to contest for the post of General Secretary by Sasikala Natarajan, he submitted that the suspension was not in existence as the then General Secretary (Jayalalithaa) in the revocation order itself said the suspension had been revoked.

He also said the entire plaint by Pushpa was based on news reports which cannot give cause of action for filing the suit.

Rejecting arguments that the media reports cannot be a base for filing the suit, Vijayan said the plaintiff has personal knowledge that there were attempts to elect Sasikala as General Secretary and it was also published in the media.

The cause of action of the plea arises out of a situation which does not require documents.

Senior counsel V Prakash submitted that reports about Sasikala Natarajan going to be elected as AIADMK General Secretary had not been refuted by the party so far.