Chennai, Aug 21:
The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a public interest litigation challenging the withdrawal of disqualification proceedings against 21 AIADMK MLAs who had voted in support of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) government during a confidence motion in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.
The MLAs had supported the confidence motion moved by the TVK government on May 13. Following this, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami’s camp had approached Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar seeking their disqualification under the anti-defection law.
Subsequently, four AIADMK MLAs resigned from their Assembly seats. The remaining 21 MLAs submitted letters seeking pardon, following which Palaniswami wrote to the Speaker requesting the withdrawal of the disqualification proceedings.
The Speaker accepted the request and cancelled the action against the MLAs.
Challenging the decision, advocate Selvakumar filed a PIL before the Madras High Court, contending that the proceedings against the MLAs should continue.
A Division Bench comprising Justices Dharmadhikari and Arul Murugan dismissed the plea, observing that the AIADMK general secretary had formally sought withdrawal of the disqualification proceedings.
The Bench said the petitioner’s contention that action should nevertheless continue against the MLAs could not be accepted. The judges also observed that if the legislators were pardoned within the prescribed 15-day period, the question of disqualification would not arise.
The court consequently dismissed the petition seeking action against the 21 AIADMK MLAs.