The Madras High Court Bench here on Tuesday gave one more chance to a public interest litigation petitioner to produce relevant Supreme Court rulings to substantiate his stand that the High Court was empowered to issue a direction to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly to forward his representation, for disqualification of Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswamy and four of his Cabinet Ministers, to the Governor for consideration.
Justices A. Selvam and N. Authinathan adjourned the hearing on the PIL petition filed by T. Analagan, son of former AIADMK MLA R. Thamarai Kani, till April 28 after stating that the authorities cited by his counsel on Tuesday were not applicable to the facts of the case.
The judges said in the meantime, the petitioner also could file an application under the Right to Information Act and find out the status of the representation made by him to the Speaker.
In his affidavit, the petitioner had claimed that Minister for Forests C. Srinivasan, School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan, Cooperation Minister K. Raju and Minister for Food and Civil Supplies R. Kamaraj met convicted prisoner V.K. Sasikala at Parappana Agrahara Central Prison in Karnataka on February 28, and subsequently made a public statement that they discussed the functioning of the State government with her.
Violation
Stating that the Chief Minister did not object to their statement, the petitioner said all five of them were liable to be disqualified from being Ministers as well as MLAs for having allegedly violated the oath of office, oath of secrecy and oaths or affirmations made by them before and after being elected as MLAs in accordance with Article 188 of the Constitution.
