The Madras high court on Tuesday upheld Tamil Nadu Speaker JCD Prabhakar’s decision to accept the resignation of six AIADMK MLAs.
After the assembly speaker accepted their resignations, a petition was filed challenging the decision by AIADMK Whip Agri Krishnamurthy and National People’s Power Party leader Ravi, who sought to quash the Speaker’s order accepting their resignations. The petitioner also alleged that the resignations were accepted without a proper inquiry while disqualification proceedings against the legislators were pending. A disqualification plea had been filed on the grounds that the six MLAs voted in support of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) government in violation of the party whip. The matter was heard by a bench of Chief Justice SA Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan, who held that the resignations of the MLAs were genuine. As per Live Law, the court made it clear that the resignation of the AIADMK MLAs would not bar the disqualification proceedings and called on the assembly speaker to complete the process within two months. The Bench also held that the acceptance was constitutionally valid and that there was no need for a roving inquiry.
The six MLAs – Maragatham Kumaravel, Sathyabama, Isakki Subbaiah, Jayakumar, MR Vijayabhaskar and C Vijayabhaskar – resigned earlier this year and shifted their allegiance to chief minister Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK). Before the Madras HC hearing, the Supreme Court had also refused to interfere with the Tamil Nadu assembly Speaker’s decision to drop disqualification proceedings against the defectors.
