New Delhi: The Supreme Court has ordered the Election Commission of India and OPS to respond within 3 days to the interim petition filed by EPS seeking ‘double leaf’ symbol in the Erode East by-election.
Palaniswami was elected as the interim general secretary in the AIADMK general committee meeting held on July 11, 2022. Former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and his supporter Vairamuthu appealed to the Supreme Court against the decision of the Madras High Court to hold this General Assembly meeting.
The Supreme Court, which has already heard this case, has imposed an interim injunction against conducting the election for the post of AIADMK General Secretary until the final decision is reached in this case.
The trial of this case, which was continued by the OPS, continued in the Supreme Court in the sitting of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Rishikesh Roy. The judges adjourned the case till date as senior advocates from both sides presented their arguments.
In this case, the Erode East Assembly Constituency by-election is going to be held on February 27. In this, as both the EPS and OPS have announced that AIADMK will field candidates against EVKS Elangovan, who is contesting on behalf of the Congress in the DMK alliance, the situation has arisen that the ‘double leaf’ symbol will be disabled.
Considering this, senior advocate C. Aryama Sundaram appeared in the Supreme Court last week on behalf of EPS and filed an appeal. “As the Election Commission of India has not yet approved the AIADMK Interim General Secretary EPS and uploaded it on its website, appropriate orders should be issued in this regard. The Election Commission should be ordered to recognize the AIADMK candidate and the ‘double leaf’ symbol in the Erode East by-election and accept the signature of the EPS on the nomination paper,” he said. he demanded.
Re-appeal: In this regard, while the judges had instructed last week to appeal again on Jan. 30 (yesterday), in the session headed by Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, senior advocate Mukul Rohtaki appeared on behalf of EPS yesterday and appealed again.
Based on the resolutions passed in the AIADMK general meeting held on July 11, the amendments made in the party rules should be uploaded on the website. Order to accept the letter sent to the Election Commission to accept the signature of EPS regarding Erode East by-election. Also, an interim petition has been filed in this regard. The petition should be heard expeditiously. He demanded that the Election Commission should also be included as a counter-petitioner in this case.
The judges accepted this appeal and ordered that the Election Commission of India and the OPS side should respond within 3 days to the interlocutory petition filed by EPS and adjourned the hearing to February 3.
Since this interim petition has been filed keeping in mind the Erode East by-election, the judges have instructed that the Election Commission and the OPS side should not delay in replying and have categorically stated that no other issue will be considered beyond this.