CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Monday ordered notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to respond to the petition filed by PMK founder S Ramadoss praying for the court to quash the ECI’s communication allotting ‘Mango’ symbol to the faction led by his son Anbumani Ramadoss.
The first division bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan granted three weeks to the commission to file the reply in the court.
Advocate K Arul, representing S Ramadoss, submitted that Anbumani ceased to be the president of the party from May 30, 2025, as his client (PMK founder) was duly elected as the president by the competent body.
However, the ECI sent the communication allotting the poll symbol to the address of the former president (Anbumani). A request made to the commission for sending all the communications to the founder was not heeded, the counsel told the court.
Senior counsel N L Rajah, stating that he represented Anbumani, said he wanted to place certain points in the court. However, the bench did not allow him to do so saying Anbumani was not a party to the petition.
It further stated that if he wanted to make any submission, he has to file an appropriate application to get impleaded in the case.
The bench adjourned the hearing by three weeks.
Amid the ongoing power tussle between the father and the son, the former preferred the petition in the court. The petition said the ECI communication – on July 30, 2025 – was sent to the address at No. 10 Thilak Street in Chennai where Anbumani had his office, instead of sending it to No. 63 Nattu Muthu Naicken Street, Vanniya Teynampet, Chennai, which is the correct address of S Ramadoss.
He sought the court to quash the impugned communication of the ECI since “it has been issued to a wrong address and it has led to an illegality of indirectly indicating the address of the former president’s office”.