Chennai: The Madras high court on Wednesday extended a stay on a floor test in the Tamil Nadu assembly and adjourned the hearing on the petition challenging the Tamil Nadu speaker P. Dhanapal’s decision to disqualify 18 legislators to 9 October.
As Senior Supreme Court lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for the disqualified MLAs, sought more time for arguments, Justice K. Ravichandrababu deferred the hearing.
Singhvi said that the 18 legislators were disqualified by the speaker based on an “unnamed, unsigned and unverified” complaint given by the government whip S. Rajendran.
Hearing another petition, the Madras high court also directed the speaker to respond by 12 October to the opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) whip R. Sakkarapani’s plea for action against 11 MLAs of the ruling party who had voted against chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami during a trust vote on 18 February, when they were part of rebel camp led by O. Panneerselvam.
Palaniswami and Panneerselvam, who is now the deputy chief minister, buried their hatchet to join hands in August. However, the merger didn’t go well with few in the party supporting the sidelined deputy general secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) T.T.V. Dhinakaran.
Immediately after the merger, 19 dissident MLAs from the Dhinakaran camp met the governor C. Vidyasagar Rao to withdraw support to the chief minister.
After one of the 19 switched back to the ruling faction, the speaker disqualified the 18 rebel legislators. Citing anti-defection rules of the Constitution, speaker Dhanapal then declared the 18 assembly constituencies vacant.
However, on Wednesday Singhvi argued that the provisions of the anti-defection law were not applicable as they had not gone against the party and had petitioned for the change of a “corrupt chief minister.”
The counsel also argued that the MLAs were intimated about their disqualification by post, two days after the media and official gazette published it.
On 20 September, while hearing a writ petition filed by the opposition leader and working president of DMK M.K. Stalin, the high court extended its stay to hold a trust vote. It had also said that there should be no elections to the 18 constituencies that were declared vacant following the disqualification of their legislators.
On Monday, while Singhvi would resume his arguments on behalf of disqualified MLAs, Mukul Rohatgi would represent the government whip and senior counsel Aryama Sundaram would appear on behalf of speaker Dhanapal.