The AIADMK General Council meeting was held on Thursday, June 23, amidst high expectations, as the High Court restrained the members from discussing the contentious unitary leadership within the party. AIADMK joint coordinator O Panneerselvam, who is against the GC discussing the issue, walked out of the meeting. However, despite 2,190 members demanding to discuss single leadership, no decision was taken. Presidium Chairman Dr Tamil Magan Hussain announced that the next General Council meeting would be held on July 11, 2022, to discuss unitary leadership in the party and abolishing dual-leadership by law.
During the meeting, the 23 draft decisions which the High Court agreed the party could discuss were rejected by the members and they put forth a single demand for unitary leadership. Following this, the council members signed a memorandum demanding a discussion on dual leadership to be held, and sought a new date for the same. Post this demand, Hussain announced that the next General Council meeting would take place at 9.30 am on July 11. As soon as the announcement was made, Paneerselvam was seen walking out of the meeting, along with his supporters.
At the start of the meeting, the functionaries paid a two-minute tribute to the 117 cadres, functionaries and others who died the previous year, including Dr Rosaiyya, CDS General Bibin Rawat, his wife and fellow colleagues, singer Lata Mangeshkar, and actor Puneeth Rajkumar.
A day before the meeting, the Madras High Court was hearing a batch of petitions seeking its cancellation. Around 9 pm on Wednesday, Justice Krishnan Ramaswamy, in his brief order, permitted the conduct of the meet, but refrained from restraining the EPS group from taking up any other fresh resolutions, which would ultimately result in unitary leadership. The group later met Chief Justice MN Bhandari and obtained his permission to prefer an appeal against the order of the single judge. The CJ nominated Justices Duraiswamy and Sundar Mohan as the judges to make a special sitting at midnight and hear the appeal. Accordingly, the bench sat at the senior judge's residence and commenced the hearing around 1 am and passed its orders around 4 am on Thursday, providing some relief to the OPS camp.