T T V Dhinakaran loyalists get nod to challenge disqualification
CHENNAI: A single judge of the Madras High Court, Justice M Duraiswamy, on Tuesday granted permission to 18 MLAs of the T T V Dhinakaran faction, who were disqualified under the Anti-Defection Act for withdrawing their support to Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, to file petitions challenging their disqualification.
Seeking an urgent hearing, senior counsel P R Raman told the judge that the constitutional rights of the 18 MLAs to cast their votes in case of a floor test would be badly affected if their pleas assailing their illegal disqualification were not heard at the earliest. The judge permitted them to file the petitions. He also agreed to hear them on Wednesday in view of the urgency of the matter.
Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal on September 18 disqualified the 18 MLAs who openly supported Dhinakaran and acted against the ruling government, led by Palaniswami. The MLAs were disqualified under Schedule 10 of the Constitution relating to the anti-defection law.
Last month, 19 MLAs met Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao and gave individual letters withdrawing their support to Palaniswami after the Palaniswami faction and the group led by former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam merged. Of them, one MLA Jakkaiyan later reposed his confidence in Palaniswami. With 18 MLAs disqualified, there are 19 seats vacant now.
P Vetrivel, one among the 18 disqualified MLAs has already filed a petition challenging the notice issued by the Speaker in the disqualification proceeding, which is due to be heard on Wednesday. But since the petition has become infructuous in view of the disqualification order passed on September 18, the legislators have decided to file the fresh pleas questioning the disqualification order.
This apart, another plea by DMK in which the court stayed the conduct of floor test till September 20 is also listed for hearing on Wednesday.
Individual petitions
Eight MLAs have filed individual petitions in the High Court to quash the disqualification order passed by the Assembly Speaker, till late in the evening of Tuesday. The Registry has numbered them and they are likely to come up before Justice M Duraiswamy on Wednesday. They contended that the disqualification was unauthorised and illegal and was without jurisdiction as per the Yediyurappa case, which was a binding law.
The eight MLAs are: Vetrivel, Parthiban, Palaniappan, Jayanthi Padmanabhan, Senthil Balaji, Murugan, Balasubramanian and Muthiah. They sought to restrain Speaker P Dhanapal, Chief Whip S Rajendran, Chief MInister Edappadi K Palaniswami and the Assembly secretary from interfering with their right as an elected representative, to participate in the voting. They also prayed for an interim stay on the operation and implementation of the impugned disqualification order dated September 18 and permit them to participate in the proceedings of Assembly, including vote on trust in the present government