Chennai: An interim stay has been ordered by the Supreme Court on the disqualification notice issued to three AIADMK MLAs by Tamilnadu Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal.
The notice was served on the two MLAs for allegedly indulging in ‘anti-party’ activities and comes under the anti-defection law.
The court order was issued Monday on a petition filed by two of the three MLAs – V T Kalaiselvan representing Vriddhachalam and E Rathinasabapathy of Aranthangi.
A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepika Gupta said: “Notice. Stay of proceedings.”
The two MLAs had taken the case to the Supreme Court Friday, seeking an order to stop the Speaker from disqualifying them. The court not only ordered an interim stay but also issued notice to the Speaker to respond to the petition filed by the MLAs.
In the 30 April notice to the three MLAs – V T Kalaiselvan, E Rathinasabapathy and A Prabhu (Kallakurichi) – Speaker Dhanapal had attached evidence to support his claim that they had supported AMMK MLA T T V Dhinakaran. They were given a week’s time to respond to the notice.
The notices were served on the MLAs on the recommendation of Law Minister C Ve Shanmugam and Chief Government Whip Rajendran.