The Madras High Court on Tuesday reserved its judgment on a batch of writ petitions filed by 18 disqualified AIADMK MLAs challenging a common order passed by State Assembly Speaker P. Dhanapal in September disqualifying them.
The Speaker had taken the action on a complaint from Chief Government Whip S. Rajendiran. The petitioners owe allegiance to dissident AIADMK leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran.
Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M. Sundar reserved their verdict after the conclusion of marathon oral arguments advanced since November 16 last on behalf of the petitioners and the respondents — the Speaker, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Mr. Rajendiran.
Following the merger of the AIADMK factions led by Mr. Palaniswami and O. Panneerselvam (now Deputy Chief Minister) in August last and the sidelining of Mr. Dhinakaran, 19 party MLAs had on August 22 met the then Governor and submitted identical letters withdrawing support to the Chief Minister.
Coercion alleged
Mr Rajendiran had then submitted a complaint to the Speaker seeking action against the 19 legislators stating that their decision was tantamount to voluntarily giving up membership of the party.
Responding to notices issued by the Speaker, one of the MLAs, S.T.K. Jakkaiyyan, claimed that he had given the letter to the Governor under coercion by other MLAs. The remaining 18 were disqualified. They are: Thangatamilselvan (Andipatti constituency), R. Murugan (Harur), S. Mariappan Kennady (Manamadurai), K. Kathirkamu (Periyakulam), C. Jayanthi Padmanabhan (Gudiyattam), P. Palaniappan (Pappireddipatti), V. Senthil Balaji (Aravakurichi), S. Muthiah (Paramakudi), P. Vetrivel (Perambur), N.G. Parthiban (Sholingur), M. Kothandapani (Tiruporur), T.A. Elumalai (Poonamallee), M. Rengasamy (Thanjavur), R. Thangathurai (Nilakottai), R. Balasubramani (Ambur), Ethirkottai S.G. Subramanian (Sattur), R. Sundararaj (Ottapidaram) and K. Uma Maheswari (Vilathikulam).
The Madras High Court had on September 20 restrained the Election Commission from conducting elections in the erstwhile constituencies of the disqualified legislators.
In the meantime, DMK whip R. Sakkarapani had filed a petition to disqualify Mr. Panneerselvam and his team of MLAs too for having voted against the government during the floor test held on February 18, 2017 and this case was also referred to the Bench.
