The Madras High Court on Tuesday upheld Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker JCD Prabhakar's decision to accept the resignations of six AIADMK MLAs who later joined the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK).
The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan, delivered the ruling on a petition filed by AIADMK whip Agri SS Krishnamurthy challenging the Speaker's decision.
The six legislators whose resignations were challenged were Maragatham Kumaravel, P Sathyabama, Isakki Subbaiah, Jayakumar, MR Vijayabhaskar and C Vijayabhaskar.
Two of them, Maragatham Kumaravel and Sathyabama, later contested and won the October 6 bypolls in their respective constituencies as TVK candidates.
The petitioners alleged that the Speaker had accepted the resignations hastily, without properly examining the circumstances behind the legislators' decision to step down. They also questioned the timing of the decision, arguing that disqualification proceedings against the six MLAs were pending when their resignations were accepted.
The disqualification proceedings stem from allegations that the legislators defied their party whip and cross-voted in support of Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay's TVK government during a confidence motion.
Tuesday's ruling will have significant implications for the legal dispute over the six legislators' resignations and the pending disqualification proceedings.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI)