Madras High Court issues notices to TN CM, Home Secretary over trust vote

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Monday issued notices to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E.K. Palanisamy, the Speaker of Assembly, Assembly Secretary and the Home Secretary to file counter affidavit by March 10.

The notices were issued by a bench consisting of Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi Ramesh and Justice R. Mahadevan.

Palanisamy had won the trust vote 122-11 in the 234-member assembly, aided by the eviction of DMK and walkout by its allies last Saturday.

The DMK has 89 MLAs in the Assembly. The division vote was taken up after two adjournments following uproarious scenes as opposition MLAs insisted on a secret vote, which was rejected by Speaker P Dhanapal.

Earlier, the DMK moved a no-confidence motion against the Assembly Speaker, with the party's working president and leader of opposition in the Assembly, M.K. Stalin, accusing the Speaker of deliberately harping on his community to malign the party.