Madurai: The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday issued notice to the leaders of two AIADMK factions including Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and party general secretary V K Sasikala and others in connection with party's symbol 'Two leaves' allocation controversy.
A division bench comprising Justices K K Sasidharan and G R Swaminathan also issued notice to former ministers E Madhusudhanan and S Semmalai and the party deputy general TTV Dhinakaran on the petition filed by one B Ramkumar Adityan, who sought direction to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), New Delhi to appoint a retried high court judge to decide on the allotment of 'Two leaves' AIADMK symbol to a faction that enjoys the majority among the MLAs, MPs and members of the executive council and general council of the AIADMK.
The petitioner Adityan, also a member of AIADMK from Tiruchendur, said that two faction leaders led by Mr. O. Panneerselvam, and V K Sasikala and TTV Dhinakaran, have put together more than 13 lakh signatures to claim 'Two leaves' symbol. But it was not required in the light of Election Symbols (Reservation Allotment) order, 1968 and the Apex Court order in Sadiq Ali and another Vs Election Commission of India, 1971, case.
The petitioner also said that when the Congress had spilt into two factions - Congress 'O' and Congress 'J' in 1969 and Samajwadi party spilt in Uttar Pradesh in Janurary this year, the ECI took a decision within two weeks.
However, in the case of AIADMK, more than five months has passed since EC had frozen the 'Two-leaves' symbol and it has been creating lot of confusion among the party cadres, said Adityan.
Citing an example of conducting the election for the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce by a retired judge following a dispute, the petitioner asked the EC to follow the same method to decide on the 'Two leaves' symbol.
As his representation to the EC did not yield any positive response, he said he approached the High court. Recording his submissions, the court issued the notice to the respondents and posted the next hearing to September 13.
