The latest verdict of the Madras High Court further complicates the power tussle going on in AIADMK

The Latin maxim "Consensus ad idem" associated with the Law of Contracts stands for the identity of minds. Unless there is consensus ad idem, there is no enforceable contract. Law schools in India drive home the meaning of the maxim with a case study. A, who owns two cars, Ambassador and Fiat, offers B, a car for sale. B accepted the offer believing that the car which A offered is Fiat. But it turned out to be that A had offered the Ambassador . There is no consensus ad idem and hence no enforceable contract. What brought this to mind is Wednesday's Madras High Court order quashing the election of EdappadiPalaniswami as the AIADMK general secretary in the general council meeting of the party held on July 11. Justice Jayachandran while ordering status quo ante as on June 23 in the continuation of O Panneerselvam and Palaniswamy as coordinator and co-coordinator respectively of the party also nullified the dismissals and appointments made by the new AIADMK dispensation, including the ouster of Panneerselvam and his associates from the primary membership of the party.

Interestingly, the court is silent about the number of general council members who took part in the July 11 meeting. Besides, Panneerselvam led a group of his henchmen to the AIADMK headquarters and drove away the staff present there before driving away with many documents and files was nothing short of hooliganism. This led to the Revenue Department sealing and locking the headquarters and taking away the keys. The Madras high Court had ordered the return of the keys of AIADMK headquarters to Palaniswamy. Wednesday's order of Justice Jayachandran is a set back to the Palaniswamy and to the more than one crore members of the AIADMK who are all against the shenanigans being staged by Panneerselvam. The verdict also rejects the fact that the July 11 general council meeting was attended by 2190 out of the 2665 members. It is the turn of Palaniswamy to file a petition challenging Justice Jatachandran's verdict. Couple of days back, Palaniswamy had declared that Panneerselvam and his cohorts do not have any place in the AIADMK. The Dharma Yudh declared by Panneerselvam against V K Sasikala in February 2017 for ousting him from the chief minister's gaddi has become an AdharmikYudh against Palaniswamy. It is time Panneerselvam played the game in the spirit of the game and accepted the truth that he was incompetent to lead a political party like the AIADMK.