Madras High Court stays Election Commission proceedings against AIADMK
The Madras High Court on Thursday stayed all proceedings initiated by the Election Commission of India on the basis of representations filed by individuals in connection with the AIADMK “two leaves” symbol dispute.
The bench of Justice R Subramanian and Justice C Kumarappan passed the interim orders on a plea by AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi Palaniswami seeking to forbear the ECI from conducting quasi-judicial proceedings into the party’s leadership dispute based on the representations made by Ravindranath, Palanisamy, Mur. Pugazhendi, B Ramkumar Adityan, P Gandhi and MG Ramachandran.
“Looking back into the representation that you made earlier, we don’t think it was Bonafide. The ECI cannot act like this. The counsels should be at least fair to the court,” the court orally remarked while staying the ECI proceedings.
Senior Advocate Aryama Sundaram, appearing for Edappadi informed the court that in December 2024, a division bench of the court, led by Justice Subramanian had disposed of a plea filed by one S Surya Moorthi to direct the ECI to consider his representation for freezing the two-leaf symbol of ADMK. While disposing of the petition, the court had recorded the ECI’s submission that it would take a decision on the representation within 4 weeks.