CHENNAI: THE complaint lodged with the Governor levelling corruption charges against Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami will not attract any of the provisions of the anti-defection law, senior advocate Abishek Manu Singhvi told the First Bench of the Madras HIgh Court on Monday.
When the arguments on a batch of writ petitions from the disqualified MLAs and others, covering seven issues, commenced in the Bench consisting of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar on Monday, Singhvi, representing the 18 MLAs belonging to rebel leader T T V Dhinakaran group, wondered how the anti-defection law would come into play in this case.
No such action has been taken against Jakkaiyan, MLA, who had also lodged a similar complaint with the Governor, Singhvi pointed out. O Panneerselvam, presently Deputy Chief Minister and 11 other MLAs had voted against Palaniswami during the confidence vote on the floors of the Assembly on February 18, but no action had been taken against them too, he pointed out. All this showed the biased and discriminatory attitude of the Speaker and the order disqualifying the 18 MLAs was totally against the principles of natural justice, he added. The arguments will continue on November 24.