Madras HC dismisses PIL to freeze AIADMK symbol, fines petitioner

The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a PIL to freeze the AIADMK symbol and fined the petitioner with Rs 25,000.

The first bench of the Madras High court comprising Chief Justice M.N. Bhandari and Justice N. Mala while dismissing the petition filed by one P.A. Joseph said that the PIL was filed purely for publicity.

The petitioner had claimed that he was the founder president of J.J. Party. The petitioner prayed before the court to give a direction to the Election commission of India to consider his application dated June 28 to freeze the 'Two leaves' symbol of AIADMK temporarily. He prayed that this should be effected until the fight between the rival factions of AIADMK led by O. Panneerselvam and Edappadi K. Palaniswami is over.

The division bench dismissed the petition stating that it was for pure publicity and that the petitioner did not even wait for a week to get a response from the Election Commission of India.

The petitioner had also made some allegations against Palaniswami in the petition and alleged that a dominant group owing allegiance to him was pressurising him (Palaniswami) to take over the leadership of the party.