The Madras High Court on Monday, March 25, 2024, simply adjourned to June 10, 2024 a batch of three original side appeals filed by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) expelled leader O. Panneerselvam, against a single judge’s order restraining him from using the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol, party flag and letterhead.
A Division Bench of Justices R. Subramanian and R. Sakthivel said, it was neither passing any interim orders nor rejecting the plea for interim orders, but only adjourning the appeals, simpliciter, after the general elections, in order to avoid any kind of confusion during the ongoing election process.
Senior Counsel P.H. Arvindh Pandian, representing the appellant, said, his only concern was that the interim injunction order passed by the single judge on March 18, 2024 should not disentitle his client from approaching the Election Commission of India (ECI) seeking the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol.
When the senior judge in the Bench said it was up to the appellant to the approach the ECI without inviting any observations from the Bench, Mr. Pandian replied that he would approach the court again if his client faced any problem before the ECI due to the civil proceedings pending before the court.
Justice N. Sathish Kumar had granted the three interim injunctions: one restraining Mr. Panneerselvam from using the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol, AIADMK flag and letter head; second restraining him from claiming to be the coordinator or even a primary member of the party and the third injuncting him from interfering with the activities of the party’s general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
The relief was granted until the disposal of a civil suit filed by Mr. Palaniswami seeking permanent injunctions of a similar nature. Mr. Panneerselvam had filed the three appeals challenging the interim injunctions on the ground that they amounted to granting the final relief itself.
He also contended that the interim injunctions ought not to have been granted when a different civil suit filed by him challenging his expulsion from the party was still pending in the court.
