Madras High Court rejects DMK plea to disqualify Panneerselvam

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday dismissed a plea by Opposition DMK to disqualify O Panneerselvam and 10 other MLAs for having voted against their party AIADMK in a trust motion in February 2017.

This is a huge relief to the ruling AIADMK as a disqualification would have meant bringing down its legislator count in the Assembly to 103, the requisite to a majority being 117.

A bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose dismissed the petition by DMK whip Sakkarapani.

The petitioner had contended that by voting against the trust motion these MLAs had violated the whip issued by the ruling party and hence attracted disqualification under the anti-defection law.

Panneerselvam and other MLAs, then in the rebel camp, had voted against the trust vote sought by Chief Minister K Palaniswami on February 18, 2017.

Palaniswami eventually won the vote by a margin of 122-11.

Panneerselvam had opposed the petition saying the whip was issued only to the 122 MLAs who were staying in a resort then and not to his erstwhile group.

He was made deputy chief minister after the group and the other faction led by Palaniswami merged in August.