The Delhi High Court Thursday Feb 28,2019 upheld the
order of the Election Commission (EC) allotting AIADMK’s Two Leaves
symbol to the faction led by EK Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam (EPS-OPS
faction).
While dismissing the appeal by leaders
of the other faction, TTV Dhinakaran and V Sasikala, the Court observed
that there was no infirmity with the EC order.
“..none of the
grounds urged by the petitioners are made out. We find no infirmity in
the order of the Commission warranting interference by this Court. All
petitions are, accordingly, dismissed.”, the Judgement reads.
The judgment was delivered by a Division Bench of Justices GS Sistani and Sangita Dhindra Sehgal. The verdict was reserved by the Bench on February 8.
Soon after the death of AIADMK supremo J
Jayalalithaa on December 5, 2016, the AIADMK party split into two
factions. While one faction was led by AIADMK leaders TTV Dhinakaran,
Sasikala and deputy CM O Panneerselvam, the other was led by Tamil Nadu
chief minister EK Palaniswami. Panneerselvam and Palaniswami later
joined hands later to oust Sasikala and Dhinakaran from the party.
On November 23, 2017, the Election Commission allotted the
Two Leaves symbol to the EPS-OPS faction on the ground that they
enjoyed the support of the majority of members in the legislative and
organizational wings.
Aggrieved by the allotment,
“unrecognized” AIADMK leaders Dhinakaran and Sasikala moved the Delhi
High Court assailing the EC order.
While the matter was pending before a Single Judge Bench of Justice Rekha Palli,
the Supreme Court in March 2018, directed the then Acting Chief Justice
of the Delhi High Court to constitute a Division Bench to adjudicate
the dispute
Sasikala and Dhinakaran had argued that
the EC order allotting the “two-leaves” symbol to the EPS-OPS camp, and
thus recognizing that faction as the successor of the AIADMK post Chief
Minister Jayalalithaa’s death, could not be sustained in law. It was
argued that the EC should have applied the “aim & object test” to
determine the rightful successor of the AIADMK party, and not the
numerical majority test
The Court, in its 69-page judgement, has
however concluded that given the democratic set-up of the AIADMK, the
Commission had rightly applied the majority test
“On going
through the rules and regulations of the party, it is clear that the
party has a democratic set-up. Units at all levels provide for local
elections to elect their office bearers. All power is derived directly
or indirectly through elections from its primary members. In such a
scenario,..the test of majority would be a relevant and germane test. Hence, we do not find any fault with the decision of the Commission to apply the majority test.“, it said
EPS-OPS, as well as the Election
Commission, defended the order on allotment of the two leaves symbol on
the ground that their faction held a clear majority
The Sasikala-Dhinakaran faction was represented by Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, and Meenakshi Arora. They were assisted by Advocates Amit
Anand Tiwari, Vivek Singh, N. Raja Senthoor Pandian, Mary Mitzy, Shakun
Sharma, Harshal Gupta, Devyani Gupta, Swastik Dalai, P Praveen
Samadhanam, Shakun Sharma.
The EPS-OPS faction was represented by Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi, CS Vaidyanathan, KV Vishwanathan and Gurukrishna Kumar. They were assisted by Advocates Gowtham Kumar, Balaji
Srinivasan, Siddhant Kohli, Garima Jain, Pallavi Sengupta,
Vaishnavi Subrahmanyam, Lakshmi Rao, Anirudh Gupta, Harsh Vaidyanathan
Shankar, Ram Shankar, Pratiksha Mishra, Ravi Raghunath, Srishti Govil,
Arunava Mukherjee, Mayank Kshirsagar, Babu Murugavel, Prakash Kumar
Gandhi, Rakesh Sharma, Diksha Rai and Palak Mahajan.
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