Symbol case: HC reserves order on Dhinakaran’s plea

Cleared/410 Words (Francis)

Madurai: The Madurai bench of the Madras high court on Wednesday reserved its order on a plea filed by sidelined AIADMK leader T T V Dhinakaran seeking to extend the October 31 deadline in the party symbol dispute case, to February 28 next year.

Dhinakaran also sought a direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) not to enlarge the scope of the dispute case and to grant sufficient opportunity to the party factions to produce defence, reply and rebuttal before the commission.

After hearing arguments from concerned sides, the division bench of justices M Venugopal and Abdul Quddhose which heard Dhinakaran’s plea, reserved its order.

During arguments, senior counsel Veera Kathiravan told the court that on the basis of incorrect presentation of facts by the petitioner that the local body elections are to be conducted by November 17 this year and a notification in that regard is to be issued by September 19, the court fixed October 31 as deadline. But, the state election commission has sought time to carry out delimitation process before election, his side said.

Besides, the court's earlier order did not envisage that the election commission might invite fresh affidavits and submissions. However, the commission invited fresh affidavits. This led to party leaders E Madhusudhanan, O Panneerselvam and S Semmalai to file affidavits and documents running into 10,000 pages.

The affidavits filed before the commission also included those of retractions of people from their earlier position of supporting party general secretary V K Sasikala and the petitioner as the leader of the party. These retractions are required to be verified as to the same is volunteering or under influence, his side said.

Senior counsels K Chellapandian and Arvindh Pandian representing Madhusudhanan, Panneerselvam and Semmalai told the court that Dhinakaran’s petition was nothing, but to prolong the symbol dispute proceedings pending before the election commission of India (ECI) since March last.

They also said the bench passed an order on September 15 directing the ECI to decide the symbol case on or before October 31, after considering all aspects and heard submissions from the petitioner’s side.

Besides, the petitioner sent a representation on September 26 to the EC seeking more time to file his submissions, but the commission rejected it, which the petitioner did not challenge. He again sent a representation on September 29 seeking just three days to file his submissions. Following it, the commission gave him time till October 4, the senior counsels said.


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