All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) expelled leader O. Panneerselvam has preferred an original side appeal seeking a right to use the party’s ‘two leaves’ symbol and a Division Bench of the Madras High Court is slated to hear his plea on Monday, March 25, 2024.
A Division Bench of Justices R. Subramanian and R. Sakthivel would be hearing the appeal preferred against an order passed by Justice N. Sathish Kumar on March 18 restraining him from using not only the election symbol but also the party flag and letterhead.
Allowing three interlocutory applications filed by AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami seeking relief until the disposal of a civil suit filed by him seeking permanent injunctions, the single judge had also prevented Mr. Panneerselvam from claiming to be the coordinator or even a primary member of the party.
The judge had also restrained the expelled leader from interfering with the functioning of the plaintiff as the general secretary of the party. The three interim reliefs were granted after finding the balance of convenience to be in favour of the plaintiff who had been elected by the party’s general council.
Justice Kumar had said the civil suit would become academic if the interim injunctions as sought for were not granted. He also observed that party cadres would get confused if Mr. Panneerslevam was not restrained from claiming himself as the leader of the party despite failing to obtain any interim order against his expulsion.
Mr. Panneerselvam has now challenged the orders passed by the single judge in all three interim injunction applications and the three appeals have been listed for admission before the Division Bench on Monday. He has urged the Bench to stay the single judge’s orders until the disposal of the appeals.
Another case
In the meantime, the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy would also be hearing on Monday, March 25, a writ petition filed by one S. Surya Moorthi seeking a direction to the Election Commission of India to take necessary action on a representation made by him on February 12, 2024.
In the representation, the petitioner had urged the commission to not allot the ‘two leaves’ symbol to the AIADMK until the disposal of civil suits pending before various courts with respect to the intra party elections.
