The Madras High Court on Thursday restrained the Speaker of Tamil Nadu legislative Assembly from holding any floor test till September 20.
Justice M Duraiswamy — who heard a petition filed by the Opposition DMK seeking an immediate trust vote by the Government against the backdrop of the letters submitted by the 19 rebel AIADMK MlAs to the Governor indicating their withdrawal of support to the Edappadi Palaniswami Gover-nment — asked Advocate General Vijay Narayan what the Governor was planning to do with the letters.
The AG said he has to get instructions from the Governor who was out of town and also expressed his helplessness in giving an undertaking to the court that the trust vote would not be held before next Wednesday. The judge after noting the replies of the AG said he was issuing orders asking the concerned authorities not to convene the House for trust vote before next Wednesday.
The court is expected to post further orders by next Wednesday in the petition filed by the DMK seeking an early trust vote.
The DMK in its petition had argued that with the decision of the 19 rebel AIADMK MlAs to withdraw support to Palaniswamy, the Government headed by the latter has become a minority Government.
In the morning, the judge asked the AG about the apprehension expressed by the DMK that the Government may hold a floor test after disqualifying the 19 rebel MlAs. The judge asked the AG to get response from the Speaker over the fear of the DMK. The AG intimated later in the day that it was not possible to furnish any undertaking about the disqualification process of the rebel MlAs. The Speaker intimated the Court that the process of disqualification has already been initiated against the rebel MlAs. “Action will be taken against the rebel MlAs. The Speaker is the ultimate authority of the House and the Court cannot intervene in the Assembly proceedings,” the Speaker intimated the Court..
The withdrawal of support by the 19 rebel MlAs took a curious turn when the Speaker P Dhanapal issued show cause notices to all the rebels asking why they should not be disqualified from the membership of the House for writing to the Governor. Though the Speaker had asked the rebel MlAs to submit their replies by Thursday, they had failed to do so, according to sources in the legislative Assembly. There are reports that the Palaniswamy Government would pre-empt the Opposition move to topple the Government by getting the 19 AIADMK MlAs owing allegiance to Sasikala and Dinakaran disqualified. The Palaniswamy Government has the support of 111 MlAs while the Opposition DMK and the rebel AIADMK combine has a strength of 117 MlAs in the House.