Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam whip R. Sakkarapani has approached the Madras High Court, seeking a direction to the Speaker and the Assembly Secretary to initiate disqualification proceedings against Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and his team of 10 MLAs for voting against Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami's government on February 18.
In an urgent writ petition moved during Dussehra vacation, Mr.Sakkarapani pointed out that the action of Mr. Panneerselvam and his team in having voted against a whip issued by their party during the confidence motion issued on February 18 would squarely fall under the Tamil Nadu Legislative (Disqualification on ground of Defection) Rules of 1986.
Instead of initiating action against those MLAs, including the present Tamil Development Minister 'Ma Foi' K. Pandiarajan, the Speaker had, with a mala fide intent, disqualified 18 other AIADMK MLAs, owing allegiance to sidelined leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran, who had done nothing against the party whip but for submitting a letter to the Governor expressing expressing lack of confidence in Mr. Palaniswami.
The petitioner pointed out that Mr. Panneerselvam and MLAs Mr. Pandiarajan, Aarukutty, Shanmuganathan, Manickam, Manoharan, Manoranjitham, Saravanan, Semmalai, Chinnaraj and R.Natraj had voted against their party whip while MLA Arunkumar had abstained from voting without the permission of the party.
Case in Supreme Court
Pointing out that Mr. Pandiarajan himself had filed a case in the Supreme Court challenging the manner in which the no confidence motion was defeated in the Assembly through a voice vote instead of holding a secret ballot, Mr. Sakkarapani said the case was withdrawn after the Chief Minister inducted him and Mr. Panneerselvam in the Cabinet.
In the case filed through senior counsel R. Shanmugasundaram, the petitioner submitted that the said act of the 12 MLAs of defying their party's whip was not condoned by their party within 15 days of voting as required under the 1986 Rules and, therefore, they must be deemed to have been disqualified as on date.
Explaining his locus standi to file the writ petition, Mr. Sakkarapani referred to a series of Supreme Court decisions on the issue and contended that any member of the House could the raise issue irrespective of the party to which he belongs to.
The case is expected to be listed for hearing before Justice S. Vaidyanathan in the vacation court sitting on Wednesday.
