Former Assembly Speaker and the AIADMK’s legal advisor, P.H. Pandian, died of cardiac failure at a private hospital in Porur in Chennai on Saturday morning. He was 74. He had been under medical treatment for cardiac-related problems.
He is survived by a daughter — Devamani, a gynaecologist, and four sons — P.H. Arvindh Pandian, an Additional Advocate General, P.H. Manoj Pandian, the AIADMK’s former MP and MLA, and Naveen Pandian, a doctor, and Vinoth Pandian, an advocate. His wife and former Vice-Chancellor of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Cynthia Pandian, died in January 2018.
The funeral will be held on Sunday evening at the Kilpauk Cemetery in Chennai.
Known for his statement during his term as Speaker that the presiding officer of the Assembly had “sky high powers”, Mr Pandian hailed from Cheranmahadevi in Tiruneveli district. A product of the Pachaiyappa’s College and Law College in Chennai, he enrolled himself at the Madras Bar in April 1968.
After M.G. Ramachandran formed the AIADMK in October 1972, Mr Pandian joined his party and got elected for the first time to the Assembly from the Cheranmahadevi constituency (now abolished) in 1977. He went on to win in 1980, 1984 and 1989. In the 1989 Assembly polls, he was the only nominee of the AIADMK (Janaki faction) to win.
Mr. P.H. Pandian emerged into prominence when he became the 11 Assembly Speaker in February 1985, a post he held for 4 years. In November 1986, when the Opposition had confronted him, Mr. P.H. Pandian told the Assembly that “sky is the limit [for me]." Five months later, the Assembly awarded S. Balasubramanian, then editor of Tamil weekly Ananda Vikatan , a three-months rigorous imprisonment for publishing a cartoon. For the next couple of days, when the State was rocked by the controversy, it was left to Mr. P.H. Pandian to defend the House’s decision. The row was resolved a few days later with him ordering the release of the journalist in deference to Chief Minister’s wishes.
There were other controversies associated with Mr. P.H. Pandian’s innings. In the first of its kind, the Assembly, in December 1986, expelled 10 MLAs of the DMK for having taken part in an agitation to burn the Constitution. In January 1988 when the Janaki Ramachandran ministry sought a vote of confidence in the House, Mr. P.H. Pandian, in two installments in a single day, disqualified 33 MLAs, belonging to the rival faction of the AIADMK led by Jayalaithaa.
On Mr. P.H. Pandian’s rulings, his long-standing colleague C. Ponnaiyan, who was Law and Education Minister in the 1980s, said his actions were based on his interpretation of the Constitution to the effect that “the Assembly and the office of Speaker are independent authorities which cannot be controlled by judiciary or executive.”
When the merger of the AIADMK factions led by Janaki Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa took place in February 1989, he stayed away and in 1991, he contested unsuccessfully in his native place as an independent with the DMK’s support.
In August 1993, he returned to the AIADMK, after associating himself briefly with the Tamil Nadu Movement for Good Governance led by Subramanian Swamy. In 1999, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Tirunelveli constituency and headed the AIADMK’s parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha.
After Jayalalithaa’s death, Mr. P.H. Pandian refused to accept the leadership of V.K. Sasikala and publicly raised suspicions about the circumstances leading to the former Chief Minister’s death . He had associated himself with O. Panneerselvam who had revolted against Sasikala in February 2017.
Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Mr. Panneerselam visited the residence to the former Speaker in the city to pay homage to him. Mr. Palaniswami described Mr. P.H. Pandian ’s passing as a “huge loss” to the AIADMK.
