A day after challenging the vote on confidence motion moved by Chief Minster Edappadi K. Palaniswami in the Assembly, DMK leader M.K. Stalin’s counsel R. Shanmugasundaram on Tuesday alleged in the Madras High Court that the Speaker and Assembly Secretary were attempting to tamper with the records of the proceedings of February 18 in the House.
The senior counsel urged the First Bench of acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G. Ramesh and Justice R. Mahadevan to urgently hear the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by Mr. Stalin.
ADVERTISEMENT
When the bench began its proceedings, Mr. Shanmugasundaram pointed out that the court had on Monday promised to hear the PIL the next day but unfortunately the plea was not in the cause list. He then urged the court to take up the PIL at least after lunch considering the fact that there was specific information about the attempts being made to tamper with the Assembly records.
Considering his contention, the Bench assured him that the PIL would be heard as the first item on Wednesday morning.
In his PIL, Mr. Stalin prayed the court to declare the decision of the Assembly Speaker in accepting the vote of confidence moved by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami as illegal, null and void.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Leader of the Opposition also prayed the court to direct the Speaker of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly to conduct fresh secret ballot on the confidence motion moved by the Chief Minister, without evicting the MLAs of any legislative party, and under the observation of the Monitoring Committee comprising the Secretary of Tamil Nadu Governor, Chief Secretary, and an official in the rank of Chief Electoral Officer from the Election Commission of India.
“There was total mala fide and arbitrary exercise of power by the Speaker of the Assembly. The members of the legislature belonging to the AIADMK party were illegally detained against their will, brought in vehicles arranged by the supporters of the Chief Minister in order to vote in his favour. As this was against the accepted democratic principles and against the guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India even for voting in the general elections, I prayed the Speaker, not to allow open voting and order for either secret ballot, or to adjourn the motion in order to free the MLAs from captivity to exercise their vote freely without any undue influence,” Mr. Stalin said.
But to the contrary, the Speaker ordered “illegal” eviction of all the MLAs of the DMK “with high-handed police force, thereby preventing DMK MLAs from exercising their franchise on the floor of the Assembly,” Mr. Stalin alleged.