Madras HC stays Election Commission proceedings against All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

The Madras High Court on Thursday stayed all proceedings by the Election Commission relating to a dispute over the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s “two leaves” poll symbol, Live Law reported.

The bench of Justice R Subramanian and Justice C Kumarappan passed the interim orders on a petition filed by AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami.

The former chief minister had sought to block the poll panel from conducting quasi-judicial proceedings into the party’s leadership dispute based on individual representations made by expelled party members, The Hindu reported.

“Looking back into the representation that you made earlier, we don’t think it was bonafide,” Live Law quoted the bench as having observed orally. “The ECI cannot act like this. The counsels should be at least fair to the court.”

The counsel representing Palaniswami informed the court that a person named S Surya Moorthi had submitted a representation to the poll panel in February 2024 seeking to freeze the AIADMK’s election symbol. The person had also filed a writ petition in the High Court seeking a direction to the Election Commission to consider the representation.

The writ petition was disposed of by a division bench led by Subramanian on December 4, after the Election Commission said it would decide on the representation within a month, Live Law reported.

Subsequently, the poll panel issued notices to…

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