CHENNAI: Under the Parliamentary practice and procedure, each legislature party and each ruling party have a Whip and Chief Whip respectively and such whips are responsible for securing the attendance of the members at the time of important divisions.
Their main functions are to keep members of their respective party within the sound of the division bell whenever any important business is under consideration in the House.
This has been stated by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswamy in a counter-affidavit filed in the Madras High Court on Tuesday.
The counter was in response to a batch of PILs filed by the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly and DMK working president MK Stalin, Advocates Forum for Social Justice president K Balu and two others, who had challenged the confidence motion called for in the Assembly on February 18 last.
Under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, any member of a political party, who votes against or abstains from voting, contrary to any direction issued by the political party to which he belongs, may be disqualified from being a member of the House.
The Assembly Speaker is the competent authority in relation to the affairs and proceedings which took place inside the House. The proceedings conducted on February 18 was well in accordance with law. It does not give rise to any cause of action to maintain the writ petitions within the scope of judicial review and parameters as laid down by the Apex Court and the High Courts, the counter added and sought the dismissal of the PILs.