The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has moved the Supreme Court against the Assembly Speaker, alleging that he has been delaying a decision on the anti-defection proceedings against 11 AIADMK MLAs who voted against the Edappadi K. Palaniswami government in a confidence motion in 2017.
The Opposition party, through its leader R. Sakkarapani, said Speaker P. Dhanapal had been sitting on the disqualification proceedings for three years and would continue to do so till the government completed its term. The DMK, represented by advocate Amit Anand Tiwari, said it took the Speaker three years and an intervention by the Supreme Court to issue notice to the MLAs in February 2020.
The party referred to how the Supreme Court recently used its extraordinary powers under Article 142 to strip Manipur Minister T. Shyamkumar of his office and banned him from entering the Assembly after the Speaker continued to delay a decision on his disqualification for defection under the Tenth Schedule.
The case titled — Keisham Meghchandra Singh versus Manipur Speaker — had eventually led to the disqualification of Mr. Shyamkumar, who after contesting in the Congress party ticket, switched sides to favour the BJP.
In its decision, the Supreme Court Bench led by Justice Rohinton Nariman had held that Speakers should decide disqualification pleas within a reasonable period of three months.
The DMK said the judgment in the Manipur case should apply to the Tamil Nadu Speaker.
In February, the case against the Tamil Nadu Speaker's inaction was closed after Advocate General for the State informed a Bench led by Chief Justice of India that the Speaker had issued notice on the 11 MLAs under scanner.
However, the apex court had not given the Speaker any deadline to decide the question of their disqualification. The CJI had left it to the Speaker’s discretion to “take a decision in accordance with the law”.
The Opposition party said three months have lapsed since the apex court asked the Speaker to decide and no action has been taken.
“The petitioner (Sakkarapani) is constrained to approach this Court directly as the inaction of the Speaker is not only against the provisions of the Constitution, but also for the reason that by the time the matter is finally decided, the entire term of the Legislative Assembly will come to an end,” the petition submitted.