Madras High Court orders notice to Speaker on disqualification plea

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered notice to Tamil Nadu Speaker P. Dhanapal on a petition from the DMK whip M. Chakrapani who sought the court’s direction to the Speaker to disqualify 11 AIADMK legislators—including the present deputy CM, O. Panneerselvam—for voting against their government in defiance of the party whip on February 18.

When the case came up for hearing, along with a batch of other petitions, the court ordered notices to the Speaker and the Assembly Secretary and adjourned the matter to October 12 for further hearing. 

Chakrapani in his petition alleged that Speaker’s inaction was mala fide and he had not even issued notices to the 11 MLAs in accordance to the provisions of the tenth schedule of the Constitution and the Tamil Nadu Assembly (Disqualification on ground of defection) Rules 1986 for defying the party-line whip issued by the Chief Government Whip S. Rajendran.

The 11 MLAs—O Panneerselvam, Aarukutty, Shanmuganathan, Manickam, Manoharan, K. Pandiarajan, Manoranjitham, Saravanan, Semmalai, Chinnaraj and R Natraj had voted against the government. Pollachi Legislator Arunkumar abstained himself from voting without the permission of the party.

Chakrapani noted that the rebel legislators’ violation of whip was not even condoned within 15 days of voting. Despite lapse of more than 6 months, even the notices not issued to them, which showed that Speaker acted in a partisan manner. As per Para 2 (1) (b) of the 10th Schedule, if a member of the House votes against the Whip and such conduct in not condoned within 15 days then that member is disqualified from being member of the House on the ground of defection, the DMK petitioner said.

He said the Speaker’s silence prompted the Chief Minister to select O. Panneersevam as the deputy CM and K. Pandiarajan as a minister. “This is a clear act of corruption and quid pro quo for supporting a minority government”, Chakrapani said.