O Panneerselvam, Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and 11 of the party MlAs who are loyal to him got a major relief on Friday as the Madras High Court dismissed the petitions filed by the opposition DMK and 18 disqualified AIADMK MlAs seeking their disqualification as members of the House.
Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose who heard the elaborate arguments of the petitioners last month ruled on Friday that they will not sit on judgment over the decision of the Speaker. The judges ruled that asking the Speaker to disqualify the MlAs would amount to judicial overreach and encroaching upon the powers of the legislature. The court cannot issue a direction to the Speaker to act upon representations made by the petitioners. But the court said that the petitioners were free to approach the Supreme Court against this ruling.
The petitioners had challenged the Speaker’s failure to disqualify Panneerselvam and 11 of his loyalist MlAs who voted against the government led by Edappadi Palaniswamy in the trust vote held on the floor of the House on February 18, 2017. The action of Panneerselvam and others were a violation of the whip issued by the AIADMK, said the petitioners.
The Court also dismissed a petition filed by the DMK leaders challenging the action of the Speaker to unveil a photograph of late J Jayalalithaa, the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, in the legislative assembly. The judges explained that the they cannot question the decision of the Speaker.
Panneerselvam, who was sworn in as chief minister on December 6, 2016, within hours of the demise of 0Jayalalithaa was forced to resign from the post on February 7, 2017 to facilitate the swearing in of V K Sasikala as chief minister. Sasikala, who was to be sworn in as chief minister on February 15, 2017 had to make a hasty retreat and surrender in the jail following the Supreme Court’s verdict upholding the special court judgment which had sentenced her and two of her close relations in the Disproportionate Asset case. Before leaving for Bangalore jail, Sasikala had handpicked Palaniswamy as the chief ministerial candidate.
Though the Panneerselvam faction voted together with the opposition led by DMK against the Government, Palaniswamy had the last laugh as it was declared that he won the trust vote. later the factions led by Panneerselvam and Palaniswamy came together and eased out Sasikala and her relations from the party.
Meanwhile, 18 MlAs belonging to the Sasikala camp met the then governor Vidhyasagar Rao and submitted a memorandum announcing the withdrawal of support to Palaniswamy. P Dhanapal, Speaker, disqualified the 18 MlAs from the House under the provisions of the ant-defection law.
The disqualified MlAs approached the Madras High Court challenging their disqualification and the court, after hearing all the parties have reserved orders in the case. The verdict in this case could turn out to be a landmark event in the political history of Tamil Nadu as the government led by Palaniswamy is surviving only because of a wafer thin majority.