CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday questioned the Election Commission of India (ECI) over its “hesitation” in deciding on representations seeking freezing of AIADMK’s poll symbol ‘Two Leaves’ and election of Edappadi K Palaniswami as the general secretary of the party.
There are multiple civil suits pending in courts regarding the issues.
When the petitions filed by EPS seeking a direction to the ECI for speedy disposal of the representations, which were submitted by expelled AIADMK party men including former MPs P Ravindranath, KC Palanisamy and Surya Moorthy, came up for hearing, the ECI’s counsel Niranjan Rajagopalan told the HC that the commission would take a decision “as expeditiously as possible” and time frame need not be set by the court.
The bench of Justices R Subramanian and K Surender said it could see “hesitation” on the part of the ECI and asked its counsel whether he wanted the bench to disclose why there is such a “hesitation”.
Making an oblique reference to the timeline set by the Supreme Court to the President regarding granting of assent to bills passed in State Assemblies in the Tamil Nadu Vs Governor RN Ravi case, the bench said, “If the President can be set a timeline, why can’t the Election Commission?"
It also asked, “Is the Election Commission above the President? The ECI counsel responded, “Everyone is equal in the Constitution.”
The two-judge bench directed the counsel to file written instructions by July 21 on the time period by which it can take a decision on the representations and adjourned the hearing.