Mango symbol cannot be banned: Ramdas’s plea dismissed

Tamil Nadu: The Chennai Civil Court has dismissed an interim petition filed by PMK founder Ramadoss, seeking to restrain Anbumani and others from using the mango symbol.

PMK founder Ramadoss had filed a petition in the Chennai Civil Court seeking to prevent Anbumani and others from using the PMK name, symbol, and party flag and to declare him the party’s leader. The civil court rejected the petition filed by the party’s general secretary, Vadivel Ravanan, seeking to be included in the case. Subsequently, the Madras High Court, which heard his case, granted an interim stay on the trial in the civil court. In response, the Supreme Court, which heard Ramadoss’s case, directed Ramadoss to file a petition in the Madras Civil Court seeking an expedited hearing of the pending case. It ordered the civil court to hear the petition and issue an interim order within three days.

Accordingly, a petition was filed in the civil court on behalf of Ramdas. The court ordered Anbumani to file a response to the petition.

The case came up for hearing on Thursday before Civil Court Judge M. Dharmaprabhu. At that time, Ramdas argued that Anbumani’s term had ended last year. The Special Executive Committee had elected Ramdas as president. However, Anbumani had illegally convened a meeting of the party’s general committee without Ramdas’s consent.

Based on this, he obtained letters regarding the general symbol allocation order by providing a fake address to the Election Commission. It was argued that even after sending a letter to the Election Commission regarding this, no result was achieved.

Anbumani argued that Anbumani’s term as leader ends on August 11. There are no party rules allowing Ramdas to declare himself leader. At 87 years old, he cannot make party-related decisions. Because of this, it was argued that some people were misleading him. Vadivel Ravan argued that his intervention petition should be accepted for hearing. The Election Commission stated that elections have been announced in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and the election process is underway. The Election Commission cannot do anything about internal conflicts within the PMK. Similarly, an unrecognized registered party cannot be considered entitled to demand its election symbol of choice. It was argued that the Election Commission is neither in favor of nor against any party within the PMK.

After hearing the arguments of all parties, the judge stated that since the election process has already begun in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, the court cannot issue any order to stop it. Therefore, if the court accepts the request to deny the mango symbol to the Anbumani Party, it will impact the election process and create confusion among voters.

Therefore, Ramdas’s request cannot be accepted at this time. The issue of the mango symbol and the party leader will be examined and decided after the elections. Therefore, Ramdas’s interim request to block the mango symbol cannot be granted. Therefore, Ramdas’s interim petition is dismissed. If the law permits, Ramdas may approach the Election Commission for relief. The judge ordered that Vadivel Ravan’s petition in this matter be admitted for hearing.