CHENNAI: Neither floor test, nor polls, and no stay on the disqualification either. At the end of day one of what looks like a long-drawn battle of procedure and precedence over the disqualification of 18 AIADMK MLAs from the rebel faction, the High Court of Madras on Wednesday ruled that the Speaker and other authorities shall not conduct floor test until further orders. Also, there shall not be any notification for conducting the election for these 18 constituencies until further orders of the court, held Justice M Duraiswamy, pointing out that Speaker P Dhanapal’s order disqualifying the MLAs was the subject matter in the present batch of writ petitions.
However, though this cheered the rebels who had challenged the disqualification order, the court refused to entertain their plea to stay the order, and adjourned the matter till October 4. After gathering momentum in the last few days, this two-week break has taken the steam off the political situation in Tamil Nadu, the effects of which were immediately evident.
The opposition, DMK, which had announced an emergency legislative party meeting, cancelled it after learning about the adjournment. Forced to play the waiting game, party MLAs have been permitted to return to their constituencies. Its ally, Congress, went ahead with its MLAs meeting as scheduled, but the party’s Tamil Nadu unit president S Thirunavukkarasar said the next step would be decided only after the court passed its verdict.
Earlier, the judge heard the arguments from a battery of senior advocates, both local and drawn from the Supreme Court, including Dushyant Dave, Salman Khurshid, CA Sundaram, PS Raman, PR Raman, Manuraj, and AL Somayaji for the petitioners, and Kabil Sibal for the DMK.
Justice Duraiswamy also heard the submissions of Special Government Pleader TN Rajagopalan, and Aryama Sundaram, Rakesh Dwivedi and CS Vaidyanathan, representing the respondents. Dave unleashed a stinging attack on Dhanapal, charging him with acting like a party man instead of upholding the constitutional post of the Speaker. These MLAs had not deserted the party, Dave contended, alleging Delhi hand in the turmoil.
The senior counsel on either side submitted that the earlier order against conducting floor test till Wednesday may be continued. They also submitted that so far as Clause 18 (ii) of the disqualification order, it may be directed not to proceed further by notifying the election for the 18 constituencies. Following this, an interim order was passed.
Kejri to meet Kamal
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is expected to arrive in Chennai on Thursday for a meeting with actor Kamal Haasan, who has been hinting at an entry into politics
MLAs told to go home as waiting game prolongs
After gathering momentum in the last few days, this two-week break has taken the steam off the political situation, the effect of which were immediately evident. The opposition, DMK, which had announced an emergency legislative party meeting, cancelled it after learning about the adjournment. Forced to play the waiting game, party MLAs were permitted to return to their constituencies.