CHENNAI: The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has moved the Madras High Court challenging the decision of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Speaker JCD Prabhakar to accept the resignations of four of its MLAs who quit the party to join the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), even though they were facing disqualification for violating the party whip during the voting on the confidence motion.
Maragatham Kumaravel, S. Jayakumar, and P. Sathyabama are among the MLAs who resigned from their posts and immediately joined the TVK, followed by Esakki Subaya, sparking allegations of horse-trading.
Senior counsel S.R. Rajagopal, representing the AIADMK, on Monday mentioned the matter before the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan and sought to have the petitions heard along with a PIL already filed by advocate ML Ravi, president of Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi, on the same issue.
The bench adjourned the matters to June 17 for hearing.
Advocate General Vijay Narayan informed the bench that complaints seeking the disqualification of 25 MLAs had been sent to the Speaker.
Later, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami filed condonation applications for 21 MLAs before the Speaker, who accepted them and exempted the legislators from disqualification proceedings.
AIADMK Whip Agri SS Krishnamurthi filed the petitions, stating that 25 party MLAs voted in favour of the confidence motion moved by the government on May 13, thereby violating the party whip.
On May 14, the party submitted a petition to the Speaker seeking the disqualification of these MLAs.
On May 25, 2026, Maragatham Kumaravel (Madurantagam constituency), S. Jayakumar (Perundurai), and P. Sathyabama (Dharapuram) resigned from their posts. They joined the TVK on the same day, and the Speaker announced the acceptance of their resignation letters, followed by a gazette notification declaring the seats vacant.
On May 26, Esakki Subaya (Ambasamudram) resigned from the post and joined the TVK.
Krishnamurthi alleged that the Speaker’s decision to accept the resignations while disqualification proceedings were pending violated Article 190(3)(b) of the Constitution and amounted to a circumvention of the Tenth Schedule, as the resignations were allegedly used as a tool to defeat the pending disqualification proceedings.
“Such conduct directly undermines the anti-defection law and renders the Tenth Schedule otiose,” he said.
The Whip further stated that the extraordinary haste shown in accepting the resignations, coupled with contemporaneous political developments, gave rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias and mala fide intent, making the impugned action a colourable exercise of power.
“The mandatory procedural safeguards under the Assembly Rules were not followed, and the coordinated timing of the resignations, induction into another political party, and avoidance of disqualification proceedings clearly establish a fraud on constitutional provisions,” Krishnamurthi said in the petitions.
He sought the court’s intervention to stay all further proceedings arising from the declaration of vacancies, direct the Election Commission of India not to issue any notification or conduct by-elections, and quash the Speaker’s acceptance of the resignations.
