Third Madras HC judge's verdict goes against 18 AIADMK MLAs who were disqualified Tamil Nadu Speaker in September last year.
In a major relief to the Tamil Nadu government headed by Chief Minister E Palaniswami, the Madras High Court on Thursday upheld the Tamil Nadu Speaker's decision to disqualify 18 AIADMK MLAs.
Justice M Sathyanarayanan of the Madras High Court upheld the Speaker's decision, over four months after a split verdict on the issue by a division bench had maintained the status quo in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. The third judge's opinion went in the favour of the Speaker 2:1.
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.
Reacting to the verdict, Dhinakaran said he will decide on the next course of action after consulting the 18 disqualified MLAs.
"If they decided to appeal, we will move the SC. If not, we will face the election. It will be their decision," he said.
"I don't consider the verdict as a setback for us. People are with us. Whenever the by-elections are held, we will emerge victorious," he added.
The Tamil Nadu government hailed the verdict. "Madras HC verdict upholding the disqualification of the legislators is a lesson for the betrayers," Tamil Nadu Law Minister CV Shanmugam said.
On June 14, a division bench of the Madras High Court comprising the then Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar 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.
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.
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