No assembly floor test until further orders: Madras High Court

Chennai: While restraining the Government from holding a floor test until further orders, the Madras High Court directed the authorities not to hold a by-election to any of the 18 Assembly Constituencies that became vacant pursuant to the disqualification of 18 MLAs by the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

A batch of petitions, inc-luding those from the 18 disqualified legislators belonging to the TTV Dhinakaran group and other petition filed by DMK seeking a floor test, came up for hearing before Justice M. Duraiswamy on Wednesday.

The judge passed an interim order stating that there shall not be any election notification for conducting the poll for the 18 Legislative Assembly Constituencies pursuant to the order of Speaker dated September 18, 2017 - which is the subject matter in the writ petitions - until further orders of this court.

The judge also directed the authorities not to conduct a floor test for the trust vote until further orders of this court. Earlier, on September 14, the judge had stayed the conduct of the floor test until September 20 on a plea from the TTV group MLAs.

Senior lawyers Salman Khurshid, Kapil Sibal, Dushyant Dave, C.Aryama Sundaram and C.S. Vaidyanathan appeared before the judge. Aryama Sundaram appeared for the Speaker and A.L. Somayaji and Vaidyanathan for the Chief Minister, Rakesh Diwedi for the Governor and Subramania Prasad for the Tamil Nadu Government.

The proceedings were conducted in the packed court hall even as over 100 advocates remained outside the court as the hearing was on a crucial issue pertaining to the government of Tamil Nadu. Beginning at 11.25 am, the proceedings went on for over two hours.

Dushyant Dave, counsel for the 18 MLAs, submitted that on August 12 a group of 12 MLAs including O. Panneerselvam had voted against the present Chief Minister. A person who voted against the CM earlier had been given Deputy CM post. But the Speaker had not issued notice against them so far. The 18 MLAs had not gone out of the party voluntarily and their action does not attract disqualification, he argued.

Dave said he suspected that the Speaker disqualified these MLAs so that if a floor test is conducted the present CM may succeed, which is mala fide and against the Constitution. The speaker's action is subject to judicial review. "The notification is against the federal structure and somebody from Delhi is instructing".

The MLAs were not against the party. Their letter to the Governor does not attract disqualification as it clearly describes the dream and vision of party supremo and former CM, J. Jayalalithaa. He said every political party should allow voicing of dissent on party issues. The case of Yeddyurappa, former CM in Karnataka, squarely applies to the case. The speaker is not above the law. After passing an order which is in violation of Apex Court orders I am asked to approach the court. Being an AIADMK MLA, I have some issues and I am of the opinion that the present CM is not functioning in the manner in which he has to as per the dreams and views of Jayalalithaa.

Appearing for the CM, Vaidyanathan submitted that there is no need for elaborate arguments on the main plea as the CM has not ordered for floor test and no such situation has arisen so far. Rakesh Diwedi said the Assembly stands prorogued as of today and CM has not so far called for a floor test. Ordering notice to the authorities, the judge posted that matter to October 4 for a final hearing.

Appearing for the CM, Vaidyanathan submitted that there is no need for elaborate arguments on the main plea as the CM has not ordered for floor test and no such situation has arisen so far. Rakesh Diwedi said the Assembly stands prorogued as of today and CM has not so far called for a floor test. Ordering notice to the authorities, the judge posted that matter to October 4 for a final hearing