CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday allowed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to proceed with the hearing and decide on issues concerning the leadership dispute in the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and freezing of the party’s ‘two leaves’ symbol.
The order is seen as a setback to incumbent AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami as the proceedings and any adverse outcome thereof may affect his hold in the party, which is smarting under a series of electoral debacles under his leadership.
A division bench of Justices R Subramanian and G Arul Murugan, however, directed the ECI to strictly confine its proceedings to the stipulations under paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, that deals with splinter groups of a political party and satisfy itself that there exists a dispute over the internal issues of the party.
The Madras High Court had granted the stay on the ECI proceedings on January 9.
ECI has the jurisdiction to settle dispute of AIADMK: HC
The bench said, “We find that the commission does not lack inherent jurisdiction or there is no total absence of jurisdiction.” Senior counsel C Aryama Sundaram, appearing for EPS, had contended that the ECI lacked jurisdiction to proceed with the representations submitted by P Ravindranath (son of former CM O Panneerselvam), KC Palanisamy, Va Pugazhendi, MG Ramachandran and Suriya Moorthy on the issues of party symbol and organisational elections.
He had also argued that the ECI cannot hold quasi-judicial proceedings.
The court, however, said, “We conclude that we cannot, sitting under Article 226 (of the Constitution), go into the nature of the allegations made in the complaints that are subject matter before the ECI and conclude as to whether they provide the jurisdiction or satisfaction to it that a dispute under paragraph 15 does exist.”
It did not agree with the contentions of EPS that such inquiry would amount to overreaching the orders of the civil court where litigations over the party’s internal affairs are pending.
The ECI’s counsel had submitted that orders passed by the civil courts will be binding on it and it will abide by the orders, the HC pointed out. The court also stated that the ECI cannot take in its sweep any other matter which is the subject matter of the civil court proceedings.
Senior counsels Jayant Bhushan and PB Suresh appeared for Ravindranath and Ramachandran, respectively, while advocate R Thirumoorthy represented Pugazhendi. It may be recalled that the court asked the ECI to consider a representation submitted by Suriya Moorthy in 2024 on freezing the symbol.