Ramadoss, son Anbumani asked to appear in Madras High Court judge’s chamber for truce talks

The Madras High Court on Friday (August 8, 2025) decided to hold talks with Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S. Ramadoss and his son Anbumani Ramadoss to explore the possibility of establishing a truce between them. Justice N. Anand Venkatesh expressed his willingness to talk to them in his chambers at 5:30 pm.

The judge requested the counsel representing both leaders to make sure they were present in his chambers by Friday evening so that he could have a word with them in private and attempt to mediate the political dispute that had arisen between the father and son in recent days.

The judge said, no one else, not even the advocates, must be present during the meeting between him and the two leaders. He made the request when a writ petition filed in the name of Pattali Makkal Katchi, represented by its general secretary Murali Sankar, was listed for hearing before him.

The petitioner party had sought to restrain the convening of an “illegal” general body meeting called for by Mr. Anbumani at Mamallapuram on August 9, 2025. It claimed that he was no longer the president of the party after his relegation to the post of executive president. Filing an affidavit on behalf of the petitioner party, Mr. Sankar said, the three-year tenure of Mr. Anbumani as president of the party had come to an end on May 28, 2025, and after that, his father, the founder of the party, had become president.

The deponent of the affidavit further stated that the founder had conducted an administrative committee meeting on July 5, 2025, and passed 10 resolutions. Further, the State executive committee meeting was conducted on July 7, 2025, when 25 other resolutions were passed. As per those resolutions, the party bylaws were amended and the founder was permitted to assume charge as president on completion of the tenure of the former president. Therefore, only the founder and not the executive president would be empowered to convene any meeting, he added.

Before going into the merits of the writ petition, Justice Venkatesh expressed his desire to meet both the father and son to the counsel representing both parties. Senior Counsel N.L. Rajah, assisted by K. Balu, said, they would convey the court’s desire to their client and bring him to the court.

Mr. Balu said that he had full confidence in the court and that he would persuade his client to meet the judge in the chambers by evening. Similarly, the advocates representing the writ petitioner too agreed to convey the court’s message to the party founder.