The Centenary of former Tamil Nadu legislative assembly speaker S Chellapandian was celebrated here on Sunday. Union Ministers P Chidambaram, G K Vasan and Jayanthi Natarajan, and Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president B S Gnanadesikan paid tributes to the former speaker at the event.
Born in 1913 at Melaseval Village of Tirunelveli district, Chellapandian got a law degree from Government Law College, Trivandrum. He started his career as a lawyer, practised as a junior under Daniel Thomas, once a leading lawyer who later served as a cabinet minister in the then State of Madras. He appeared for Kasirajan and Rajagopal, freedom fighters who were detained in connection with the murder of a British official, and argued for their release.
He took efforts to put an end to the Criminal Tribes Act, enacted by the British, which classified the local Maravar and Kallar communities as Notified Tribes. A Gandhian and a Congressman, he later became a close disciple of K Kamaraj. He was considered a guide to G K Moopanar.
During 1952-57 he served as an MLA representing Cheranmahadevi constituency of Tirunelveli district. In 1962-67, he served as the Speaker of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. After 1967, the year when Congress fell out of power in TN, he declined to contest elections. He died in 1993.