The disqualified All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) MLAs, owing allegiance to sidelined leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran, on Thursday accused Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami of having submitted antedated written comments to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, P. Dhanapal, during the disqualification proceedings. They also charged the Speaker with sharing their interim reply with the Chief Minister without their knowledge.
Representing 14 of the 18 disqualified MLAs, Senior Counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the first Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M. Sundar that “unless he (the Chief Minister) claims to have astrological powers, he couldn’t have known the contents of the interim reply submitted by us to the Speaker.”
Mr. Singhvi pointed out that the comments submitted by the Chief Minister to the Speaker on August 30 had a rebuttal to a statement made by the MLAs in their reply regarding attempts made by them to meet the Chief Minister before giving a letter to the Governor on August 22 withdrawing their support to him. He accused the Speaker of having thrown the principles of natural justice to the winds by not allowing the MLAs to cross-examine the Chief Minister.
Further, pointing out that the disqualification orders were issued first to the media at around 11 a.m. on September 18 and uploaded on the government website at 8.30 p.m. on the same day, he said the orders were served on the MLAs concerned only between September 20 and 22. After reading out Rule 8(1)(b) of the Members of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules of 1986, he said it requires the orders to be issued to the MLAs not to the media.
“The disqualification operates instantaneously. Yet, I was not served the order copies. I was forced to challenge the orders before this court without a [original] copy.” After hearing him for over two hours, the judges adjourned further hearing on the batch of cases to Monday when Senior Counsel P.S. Raman would advance arguments on behalf of the rest of the four disqualified MLAs followed by replies by Senior Counsel C.S. Vaidyanathan representing the Chief Minister and others.
After completion of the arguments on the disqualification issue, the court would hear other cases related to privilege proceedings initiated against 21 DMK MLAs for displaying gutkha sachets in the Assembly, a petition filed by the Leader of the Opposition M.K. Stalin for conduct of floor test in the Assembly and a plea moved by DMK whip R. Sakkarapani seeking disqualification of Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and his team of MLAs for voting against the government on February 18.
On Monday, Mr. Sakkarapani filed an application for amending his prayer. Instead of his earlier prayer of urging the court to direct the Speaker to disqualify Mr. Panneerselvam and his team of MLAs, he and urged the court to declare that they stand disqualified for having violated a whip issued by their party during the vote of confidence moved by the Chief Minister on the floor of the Assembly on February 18.
The Bench led by the Chief Justice ordered notices to the Speaker, the Deputy Chief Minister and others on the amendment petition and asked them to submit their replies.
Slip of the tongue
The court hall number 1 in the Madras High Court was jam packed on Thursday afternoon as lawyers representing the DMK, the AIADMK as well as other many lawyers, sans any political affiliation, swarmed in large numbers to hear arguments advanced by Senior Counsel from Delhi in the MLAs disqualification case.
Every word uttered during the course of the hearing assumed significance as the Senior Counsel representing the petitioners as well as the respondents did not lose even a single opportunity to take digs at each other. When Justice M. Sundar wanted to the know the strength of different parties in the Legislative Assembly, Senior Counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the 18 disqualified AIADMK MLAs, explained it in detail.
After doling out the figures, Mr. Singhvi wanted to say that the 18 disqualified MLAs were happy with the AIADMK but not with Chief Minister ‘Edappadi’ K. Palaniswami. However, due to slip of a tongue he said DMK instead of AIADMK. Immediately, Senior Counsel C.S. Vaidyanathan, representing the Chief Minister, rose from his seat and quipped: “My learned friend correctly said that the 18 people are happy with the DMK.”
At a later point of time, when Mr. Vaidyanathan by mistake said that the disqualified MLAs had sought for a direction to conduct floor test, Mr. Singhvi pounced this time to say: “I didn’t ask for it. The DMK asked for it.” Quickly realising his mistake, Mr. Vaidyanathan said: “Today, there is no difference in identity. The Chinnamma (a reference to V.K. Sasikala) AIADMK and the DMK are the same.”
