SC pulls up EC for oral response to AMMK’s symbol plea

New Delhi, March 25 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Monday slammed the Election Commission for not filing a written response to Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran's plea for the allotment of common symbol of "pressure cooker" to his party for the coming Lok Sabha elections and assembly by-elections in Tamil Nadu.

The bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepak Gupta pulled up the poll panel for making oral submissions without backing them with a written response to Dhinakaran's plea.

As the EC's lawyer responded that the court had directed the presence of an official to assist it (court) and there was no direction for the filing of a written response, CJI Gogoi cited a part of their order which said, "Issue notice returnable on March 25, 2019."

Directing the poll panel to file the written response in the course of the day, the court said it would now hear the matter at 10.30 a.m. on Tuesday.

The AMMK, by its limited prayer, had on March 15 urged the court to allow it to continue with the old symbol of the "pressure cooker".

The poll panel, however, told the court on Monday that it can allot an election symbol of choice to an individual independent candidate or to a group registered with it but not a common symbol to a group of people represented by the AMMK, thereby implying that the AMMK was a group not registered with the EC.

At this, CJI Gogoi sought the list of the free symbols that are allotted to individual candidates or the groups registered with the EC.

In a setback to Dhinakaran, the Delhi High Court had on February 28 dismissed the AMMK's challenge to the Election Commission's decision of awarding the "two leaves" symbol to the state's ruling AIADMK led by Chief Minister E.K. Palaniswami.

After the AIADMK had split, the EC had, on November 23, 2017, recognised Palaniswami's group as the real AIADMK and allotted it the poll symbol.

The high court had noted that figures show a clear majority enjoyed by the faction led by Palaniswami.

On February 7, an apex court bench of Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice Ajay Rastogi asked the Election Commission to consider allotting the "pressure cooker" symbol to Dhinakaran's AMMK.

However, the order had asked the poll panel to consider allotting a common symbol to the AMMK if, for some reason, its appeal against the November 23, 2017 order could not be disposed of by the high court in four weeks.