Civil court notice to Anbumani against use of PMK name, flag, symbol

Chennai: Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder Dr S Ramadoss has moved a city civil court to restrain his son Dr Anbumani's faction from using the party's name, flag and election symbol ‘Mango' for the coming Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.XII Assistant Judge M Dharmaprabu, before whom the matter came up for admission on Wednesday, directed Anbumani to respond to a suit moved. The court further directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to file its response to the suit by March 9.
On Feb 20, the first bench of the Madras high court dismissed two petitions moved by Ramadoss, seeking direction to the ECI to freeze the ‘Mango' symbol in view of a ‘split in the party and internal dispute' over the post of president of the party.Ramadoss also sought the court to direct the ECI to declare Ramadoss as the president of the party, recognise his team of office-bearers, and allot the ‘Mango' symbol to his faction for the upcoming elections for the legislative assemblies of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.Refusing to allow the pleas, the high court observed that the dispute between the father and son must be resolved only before a civil court. According to Ramadoss, his son Anbumani was appointed as president of the party for a fixed term of 3 years, from May 28, 2022, to May 2025.However, after the expiry of Anbumani's tenure, certain unauthorised and forged documents were created and submitted to the ECI. These documents allegedly misrepresented that a general body meeting was held on Aug 31, 2023, and that the tenure of office-bearers headed by Anbumani was extended up to Feb 23, 2026, and later Aug 1, 2026, he said.