DMK working president M.K. Stalin on Tuesday filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Tamil Nadu Governor as well as the Speaker to hold a trust vote in the Assembly forthwith. An affidavit, filed in support of the yet to be numbered petition, claimed that it was illegal for a “minority government” to take major policy decisions. He insisted that the trust vote be conducted under the supervision of an independent observer to be appointed by the High Court.
Meanwhile, the High Court has decided to hear on October 10 a batch of cases including those filed by Mr. Stalin as well as the Advocates’ Forum for Social Justice, represented by advocate K. Balu of the Paattali Makkall Katchi, to annul the confidence motion passed in the Assembly on February 18 and conduct the trust vote afresh through a secret ballot and under the supervision of a monitoring committee.
The first Division Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M. Sundar fixed the date after the cases, listed for hearing on Tuesday, could not be taken up for want of time.
Earlier, R. Shanmugasundaram, representing Mr. Stalin, urged the court to post them for hearing next week, and advocate R. Elavarasan, representing Mr. Balu, informed that a similar case pending before the Supreme Court had been withdrawn.