It is a symbol of victory and not AIADMK party’s Two Leaves symbol as alleged by the petitioner, Advocate-General A Navaneethakrishnan told the Madras High Court on Tuesday.
When a writ petition from RS Bharathi, State Legal Wing secretary of the DMK, praying for a direction to the State government to remove the Two Leaves symbol at the entrance of former chief minister MG Ramachandran’s memorial on the Marina, Navaneethakrishnan told Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar that the structure could not be said to be reflecting the Two Leaves symbol. The writ petition was not maintainable since a similar one was filed by one AG Narasimhan and it was dismissed by the HC, he added. When the judge questioned his locus standi to file the petition, Bharathi replied that he was the secretary of the DMK Legal Wing. When the judge reminded him that as an office-bearer he could file only a public interest writ petition and not a writ petition, Bharathi submitted that he was authorised by the DMK party to file the writ petition. Directing him to produce the authorisation, the judge adjourned the matter till December 13.
In his petition, Bharathi contended that the two leaves symbol had been erected in the most arbitrary manner to promote and canvass the ruling AIADMK at the cost of public exchequer running to more than `7 crore. He filed the petition on December 7 and after coming to know about the same, the government in an unscheduled programme unveiled the new construction unethically on December 9. A party in power could not canvass at the cost of State exchequer by promoting its reserved symbol erected on a government property, Bharathi added.