In a setback for former Tamil Nadu chief minister E K Palaniswami, the Madras High Court on Wednesday gave the go ahead for the Election Commission to proceed with petitions on intra-party disputes in the AIADMK and challenging the legitimacy of the present leadership.
A Division Bench of Justices R Subramanian and G Arul Murugan, vacated the stay granted last month against all further proceedings by the EC on the representations submitted by expelled members of the AIADMK, including former MP, P Ravindranath, son of former Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam (OPS), heading a splinter group.
Former MP, KC Palanisamy and Va Pugazhendi are among the others, who have moved the EC. The stay was granted last month on a petition by EPS, challenging the locus standi of the petitioners as they are all expelled from the party and the EC’s jurisdiction to decide a settled intra-party dispute.
Now, it is in the hands of the poll body to either reject the petitions or freeze the AIADMK’s iconic ‘Two Leaves’ symbol and deprive EPS of it ahead of the 2026 assembly elections. In July 2021, EPS was elected party general secretary by the General Council, brining the party under unitary leadership. It was at this General Council that OPS and his supporters were expelled from the party.
EPS has the support of 61 of the 65 AIADMK MLAs in the Tamil Nadu assembly and enjoys the support of over 2900 General Council members.
While vacating the stay, the Bench made it clear to the EC that its inquiry into the petitions, pending before it, should be conducted only in accordance with the parameters stipulated in para 15 of the Elections Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, before proceeding further and making any decision.
The caveat makes the EC to first satisfy that the initial hearing of the parties be confined to ascertain and satisfy the existence of a dispute.
Only after this preliminary inquiry, the EC could conclude as to whether it has the jurisdiction to proceed further. On finding that there are factions following a split, the EC has powers to decide which one represents the party and is entitled to the symbol.
It was one S Surya Moorthi, who first approached the EC with a petition to freeze the AIADMK symbol in February last year, ahead of the Lok Sabha poll, citing pending civil suits pertaining to the leadership dispute. He also moved the High Court seeking a direction to the EC to act on his representation.
It was disposed of by a Bench in December last on the EC submitting that it would decide on it within four weeks. Then afterwards, the poll body issued notices to the AIADMK and others expelled members who have made representations. EPS challenged this in the High Court.
Earlier, when the Bench granted the stay, Justice Subramanian asked how the poll body could step in decide on intra-party civil disputes which are pending before the High Court. The counsel for the EC informed the court that the poll watchdog was still to decide on whether it had jurisdiction to consider the representations.