The Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar on Wednesday (March 28) heard the contentious Edappadi K Palaniswami versus T T V Dhinakaran symbols issue and kept in abeyance any decision on it. So far, as per the top court’s interim ruling, the pressure cooker symbol will not be available to the Dhinakaran faction till the main matter is solved, the court said.

As of now, as per the top court, told the Dinakaran faction of the AIADMK that it cannot float a new party, using the ‘pressure cooker’ symbol.

Counsels argued that there is no urgency, considering that there are no elections at hand. The question was on whether to take up related matters or not.

The petition sought to allow rebel AIADMK leader T T V Dhinakaran to use a common symbol, preferably the ‘pressure cooker’, and a suitable name of his choice for the AIADMK faction led by him.

The main petition challenges the Election Commission’s November 23 order, which had allotted the ‘two leaves’ symbol to the group headed by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam.

On Wednesday the court was told that the high court’s decision was being rebutted on the ground that no elections are pending, hence there was no urgency in the matter and an interim order has been passed.

On Wednesday the top court also asked the Delhi High Court to set up a special division bench  to decide the main issue between the two factions of the AIADMK by the end of April.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi stated the procedure to contest an election, mentioning the AIADMK as a splinter party issue where two parties are contending to be the original party and both contending for their own party symbol.

Because of the splinter, the election commission froze the symbol for 2 weeks to decide which is the original party. It was held that the original party is under the leadership of the present chief minister.

–      India Legal Bureau