The Madras High Court on Wednesday adjourned to October 9 the hearing on individual writ petitions filed by 18 disqualified AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to sidelined leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran. The petitioners had challenged an order passed by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly on September 18 disqualifying them under the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules of 1986.
Justice K. Ravichandrabaabu adjourned the cases after hearing at length arguments advanced by Senior Counsel Abishek Manu Singhvi, representing the petitioners, for nearly three hours. The judge made it clear that an interim order passed by Justice M. Duraiswamy on September 20, restraining the conduct of bypolls for the 18 constituencies as well as a trust vote in the Assembly, shall continue until further orders.
At the beginning of the day, Mr. Justice Ravichandrabaabu ordered notices, returnable by October 12, to the Speaker as well as the Assembly Secretary on a writ petition filed by the whip of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) R. Sakkarapani to initiate disqualification proceedings against Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and his team of 10 MLAs who voted against a motion of confidence moved by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on February 18.
Thereafter, the judge took up the 18 writ petitions filed by the disqualified MLAs belonging to the Dhinakaran faction. Then, Senior Counsel Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for AIADMK whip S. Rajendiran, said that a writ petition filed by DMK working president M.K. Stalin seeking a direction to hold a fresh floor test in the Assembly should be heard and decided first before moving on to the writ petitions filed by the disqualified MLAs.
Not convinced with the suggestion, Mr. Justice Ravichandrabaabu asked: “Where is the question of deciding on the floor test first and then hearing the MLAs plea?” Then, Mr. Singhvi said the case of the disqualified MLAs could be heard along with the case filed by the DMK whip to disqualify OPS and the MLAs who supported him. However, Senior Counsel Aryama Sundaram, representing the Speaker P. Dhanapal, objected to it and said that he would require time to reply to the DMK whip’s case.
Stating that time had been granted till October 12 in that case, the judge said in the interregnum, arguments on the disqualified MLAs’ case could be begun. It was only thereafter Mr. Singhvi opened his arguments and went on to accuse the Speaker “of emulating Kumbhakarna (a mythical character known for sleeping at a stretch for six months)” when it came to taking against the 11 MLAs supporting O. Panneerselvam and “acting in a haste” against 18 MLAs supporting Mr. Dhinakaran.
Non-application of mind
The Senior Counsel said the entire disqualification proceedings suffered from the legal infirmity of non-application of mind by the Speaker since they had been initiated based on an “unnamed, unsigned and unverified” letter reportedly written by the 18 MLAs to the Governor expressing their lack of confidence on the Chief Minister. When Mr. Rohatgi intervened to ask if the MLAs were disputing the fact of having written a letter to the Governor, Mr. Singhvi replied in the negative.
He said that he was only trying to demonstrate how the Speaker had not even bothered to take a look at the true copies of individual letters given by the 18 MLAs to the Governor before deciding to disqualify them. The Speaker’s reliance upon some piece of paper produced by the AIADMK whip “makes the entire foundation of the complaint non-existent. How can a superstructure stand on this foundation? The foundation of the complaint is actually quicksand,” he added.
Mr. Singhvi also contended that the Speaker had miserably failed to follow principles of natural justice by not providing necessary documents including letters written to him by MLA S.T.K. Jakkaiyan, who shifted loyalty from the Dhinakaran side to the other camp, accusing the 18 MLAs of trying to topple the AIADMK government. The disqualified MLAs were also not given an opportunity to cross-examine the Chief Minister and the AIADMK whip, he said.
