CHENNAI: Madras High Court has asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take a call on allotting the ‘top’ symbol for MDMK by Wednesday morning and inform its decision to the court by afternoon of the same day.
After hearing a petition filed by MDMK general secretary Vaiko seeking a direction to the ECI to allot the top symbol to his party candidate for the ongoing polls by considering the representation given to the commission, the first bench of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy made the request.
“Considering the exigencies of the matter, we request the ECI to decide on the representation by 9 am tomorrow (Wednesday),” the bench said, adding that its decision must be informed to the court by 2.15 pm.
Recording the submission made by senior counsel M Ajmal Khan that the party contested the Assembly polls in the 'top' symbol and referring to the short time left for allotment of the symbols for the ongoing elections, the bench stated that it could understand the ‘predicament’ of the petitioner.
The counsel for ECI Niranjan Rajagopalan informed the court that MDMK cannot claim the Top symbol as a concession because it is contesting only one seat. However, he added that top is neither a reserved nor a free symbol.
Vaiko, in the petition, stated that the ECI is not allotting the top symbol despite his party submitting all the required documents to the commission and a fresh application as directed by the court in an earlier petition on the same issue. He noted that the commission has not applied its mind and failed to take notice of the submissions made in this regard already.