Chennai, Feb 12 (Reporter) In what could be seen as a setback for AIADMK General Secretary and Tamil Nadu former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS), the Madras High Court on Wednesday lifted the stay granted by it and allowed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to proceed with the petitions on the intra-party disputes arising out the leadership row. A Division Bench of Justices R Subramanian and G Arul Murugan directed that the ECI should first satisfy itself that there existed a dispute after which only it could proceed further on the matter. The ECI should consider the representations strictly in accordance with the parameters of Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, before proceeding further and taking a decision . The ECI at the initial stage, must be confined only to ascertain and satisfy itself that there existed a dispute. Only after this preliminary inquiry, the EC could conclude as to whether it has the jurisdiction to proceed further. On finding that there are factions following a split, the EC has powers to decide which one represents the party and is entitled to the symbol. The High Court had granted the stay on January 9, 2025, against all further proceedings pending before the ECI on the pleas filed before the ECI by expelled AIADMK members, including former Lok Sabha MP P Ravindranath, son of ousted leader and former Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam (OPS)--heading his own faction--and his loyalists former MP KC Palanisamy, V.Pugazhendi and three others. The stay was granted on a petition filed by EPS, challenging the locus standi of the petitioners as they were all expelled from the party and the EC’s jurisdiction to decide a settled intra-party dispute. Following today's order, the matter is now before the ECI to either reject the petitions or freeze the AIADMK’s iconic ‘Two Leaves’ symbol and deprive EPS of it ahead of the 2026 assembly elections. After insisting on continuance of the dual leadership headed by him and EPS, OPS raised a banner of revolt opposing restoration of unitary leadership in AIADMK headed by EPS, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, with the support of majority of MLAs and over 2,900 General Council (GC) members, the GC meet in July 2021, unanimously elected EPS as the party general secretary and expelled OPS and his supporters. It was one S Surya Moorthi, who first approached the ECI with a petition to freeze the AIADMK symbol in February last year, ahead of the Lok Sabha poll, citing pending civil suits pertaining to the leadership row. He also moved the High Court seeking a direction to the ECI to act on his representation but it was disposed off by a Bench in December last after the poll body informed that it would decide on it within four weeks. Later, the ECI issued notices to the AIADMK and the expelled members who have made representations following which EPS challenged this in the High Court, which the Court had earlier stayed in last month and vacated it today. It may be noted that when Mr Justice Subramanian, while granting the stay, sought to know how the ECI could decide on intra-party civil disputes which are pending before the High Court, the ECI's counsel said it was yet to decide on whether it had jurisdiction to consider the representations...////...