Madras High Court permits two litigants to challenge amendments made to AIADMK’s constitution

The Madras High Court on Tuesday granted permission to Thoothukudi-based advocate B. Ramkumar Adityan and another to file a civil suit in representative capacity challenging the amendments made to the constitution of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in 2017 and 2021 for creating the posts of coordinator, joint coordinator, deputy coordinator and so on.

Justice P. Velmurugan allowed an application preferred by the duo seeking the leave of the court to file the suit on behalf of other members of the AIADMK too. He pointed out that no member of the party had objected to them filing the suit in a representative capacity despite the litigants having issued newspaper publications, on the basis of a court order, inviting objections, if any, to the suit.

“Therefore, it is evidently clear that the applicants/plaintiffs have filed the suit for themselves and on behalf of the members of the common interest,” the judge said and directed the Registry to take the suit on file if it was otherwise in order. The judge also rejected AIADMK’s contention that the two litigants were not members of the party and that one of them had produced a forged membership card.

Pointing out that the membership card had been signed by the coordinator and joint coordinator of the party, the judge said, the genuineness of the documents produced by the litigants could be decided only after a full-fledged trial and not at the stage when they were seeking the leave of the court to file the suit in a representative capacity on behalf of many other members of the party.