The Supreme Court on Thursday gave the go-ahead to the Election Commission to examine an application by AMMK leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran to allot a common election symbol to his party, preferably, the ‘pressure cooker’.
The apex court vacated its earlier decision to keep in abeyance a March 9, 2018 interim order of the Delhi High Court directing the Election Commission of India (ECI) to consider giving Mr. Dhinakaran’s group a common symbol.
The order allows the ECI to consider the application in accordance with the March 2018 order, passed by a single judge of the Delhi High Court, and “take it to its logical conclusion expeditiously”.
However, the Bench asked the ECI to hold on for four weeks before taking a call on a common symbol for the Dhinakaran group.
This four-week window is for the Delhi High Court to decide a writ petition by Mr.Dhinakaran challenging the ECI’s final decision on November 23, 2017 granting the Panneerselvam-Palaniswami faction the use of the name ‘AIADMK’ and its reserved ‘two leaves’ symbol.
Like the single judge, the apex court Bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Ajay Rastogi drew upon the March 22, 2017 decision of the ECI, by which Mr. Dhinakaran was allotted a symbol to contest the Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly constituency bye-election.
The March 22, 2017 decision was an instance of the ECI wielding its expansive plenary powers under Article 324 of the Constitution to ensure a “level playing field” between the Dhinakaran group and the rival faction of O. Panneerselvam and Edappadi K. Palaniswami at the polls. Subsequently, Mr. Dhinakaran, contesting on the ‘pressure cooker’ symbol, won a thumping victory.
Two eventualities
The Supreme Court’s order on Thursday provided for eventualities; one of them being the High Court not being able to wrap up the case within the stipulated four weeks.
In such acase, the ECI can take two more weeks to consider giving Mr. Dhinakaran a common symbol, preferably the 'pressure cooker'.
The second eventuality is if the ECI issues a press note announcing elections for vacant Tamil Nadu Assembly seats or even the Parliamentary polls of 2019 before the four-week deadline. In that situation, the ECI should take a week to consider and pass appropriate directions on a common symbol for Dhinakaran.
The judgment came on an application filed by Mr. Dhinakaran on January 2, 2019 in the backrdop of the ECI notifying the Thiruvarur Assemly constituency bye-election on December 31, 2018. He had sought a direction to the ECI to allow him to use a common symbol, preferably ‘pressure cooker’, as was done during the Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly by-poll.
However, the ECI subsequently cancelled the by-election, caused by the death of DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi last year, which was scheduled for January 28.