'HC Appears To Be Right, Civil Court To Adjudicate Symbol Row’, SC On PMK Intra-Party Dispute
The top court said that the poll panel cannot decide a dispute over the allocation of symbols of an unregistered political party.
Published : March 23, 2026 at 7:08 PM IST
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday, while asking PMK founder S Ramadoss to approach the civil court, upheld a Madras High Court decision dismissing his two petitions for a direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to either allow his faction to use the 'mango' symbol during the upcoming assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry or freeze the symbol altogether.
Ramadoss has been fighting a legal battle to restrain his son Anbumani from using the party's name, flag or symbol. The matter came up before a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi.
The bench said that the poll panel cannot decide a dispute over the allocation of symbols of an unregistered political party, and added that if the application is filed by Tuesday for a remedy, the civil court may adjudicate it expeditiously. Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the PMK, said that if the poll panel unfroze the symbol, anyone could be allotted the party's 'mango' symbol by a lottery system.
Senior advocates Meenakshi Arora, Mukta Gupta and Shyam Divan, appearing for different parties, said the civil court alone can decide the issue, as the poll panel cannot adjudicate the dispute over symbols concerning unregistered political parties. However, Singh contended that the poll panel will eventually have to decide the party's symbol.
"The high court appears to be right in the impugned judgment; the allocation of symbol among the two rival groups of an unrecognised political party cannot be decided by the ECI. However, this does not mean that an aggrieved party will be left remediless. Since the petitioner has already filed a civil suit, it is open to the petitioner to move an appropriate application before the civil court. If such an application is filed by tomorrow, we direct the civil court to decide the same after hearing the parties and in accordance with law within a period of three days," said the apex court in its order.
The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) party challenged the Madras High Court's February 20 decision, which dismissed two petitions filed by Ramadoss. Ramadoss sought a direction to the poll panel to either allow his faction to use the 'mango' symbol during the ensuing assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry or freeze the symbol entirely so that the faction led by his son, Anbumani, could not use it either.
Elections to 234 Assembly seats are scheduled on April 23, with the counting slated for May 4. On February 20, the high court refused to entertain the two petitions after agreeing with the ECI's submission that factional disputes in a political party could only be resolved through a civil court decree, and no such direction as sought by the PMK party founder could be issued to the ECI.
Read More
