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18 Tamil Nadu MLAs disqualification case: Justice M Sathyanarayanan of Madras HC to pronounce verdict today

Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal had on September 18 last year disqualified these 18 AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to AMMK leader TTV Dhinakaran.

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Justice M Sathyanarayanan of the Madras High Court will deliver at 10:30 am on Thursday the verdict on the case of disqualification of 18 AIADMK legislators, over four months after a split verdict on the issue by a division bench had maintained the status quo in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. 

Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal had on September 18 last year disqualified these 18 AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to AMMK leader TTV Dhinakaran on the ground that they had tried to pull down their own party's government in the state.

On June 14, a division bench of the Madras High Court had given a split verdict on petitions challenging the disqualification of these MLAs, a ruling that maintained status quo in the corridors of power in Tamil Nadu.

The court had then said that the senior-most judge after the high court's Chief Justice would hand-pick a third judge, who will hear the matter afresh. Following this, Justice S Vimala of the high court was appointed as the third judge to hear the matter.

The petitioners had then approached the apex court seeking transfer of their pleas from the high court claiming that there was apprehension of "bias". The Supreme Court then assigned the case to Justice Sathyanarayanan. He had reserved the verdict in August after hearing the matter. 

In June this year, the bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar had delivered divergent verdicts on whether the 18 MLAs deserved to be disqualified under the anti-defection law by the Speaker for approaching the Governor and seeking the removal of Chief Minister K Palaniswami.

In her 200-page order, the chief justice had upheld the Speaker's decision, saying "in my opinion, the view taken by the Speaker is a possible, if not plausible view, and I am unable to hold that the said decision is any way unreasonable, irrational or perverse."

Justice Sundar, in his 135-page order, had struck a dissenting note, insisting that Speaker P Dhanapal's order "deserved to be set aside on grounds of perversity, non-compliance with principles of natural justice, mala fides and violation of the constitutional mandate". 

The 18 MLAs had on August 22 last year met the then Tamil Nadu Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao and conveyed that they had lost confidence in Palaniswami. 

MLAs who have been disqualified are Thangatamilselvan, R Murugan, Mariappan Kennedy, K Kathirkamu, C Jayanthi Padmanabhan, P Palaniappan, V Senthil Balaji, S Muthiah, P Vetrivel, NG Parthiban, M Kothandapani, TA Elumalai, M Rengasamy, R Thangadurai, R Balasubramani, SG Subramanian, R Sundarraj and K Uma Maheswari.

One of the dissident MLAs, STK Jakkaiyan, had later switched camps to support Palaniswami.

Meanwhile, the disqualified MLAs are staying at Courtallam, a tourist town in Tirunelveli district, triggering speculations it could be a repeat of 'resort politics' witnessed last year.

Amid reports that it was an attempt by Dhinakaran to keep his flock together, his close associate P Vetrivel asserted there was no problem and the 17 disqualified MLAs and three ruling party MLAs were likely to stay there for some more time.

"There is no problem at all...," Vetrivel, who is among the 18 disqualified MLAs, said here, adding he would also join his party colleagues.

In Feburary 2017, AIADMK MLAs backing V K Sasikala, aide of late J Jayalalithaa and now serving a prison term in an assets case, had stayed in a resort at Koovathur near here for days together along with party MLAs when Panneerselvam revolted against her.

(With PTI inputs) 

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