Chennai: In a big relief to the AIADMK government, the Madras High Court on Thursday upheld the Speaker's order disqualifying the 18 MLAs loyal to the AMMK leader TTV Dhinakaran.
An adverse verdict would have most certainly triggered a realignment of anti-AIADMK political forces and brought the Edappadi Government perilously close to losing majority in the Assembly whose effective strength now is 232 as two seats are vacant.
The ruling party has 116 members, including Speaker P Dhanapal; while the opposition bloc of DMK-Congress-IUML has 97 not counting TTV, the big challenger.
“....there is no error apparent on the face of the record and the reasons assigned by the Speaker did not suffer on the grounds of breach of constitutional mandate, malafides, non-compliance of the rules of natural justice and no perversity is attached to the reasons assigned by the Speaker to disqualify the petitioners,” Justice M Sathyanarayanan said, dismissing a batch of petitions filed by the disqualified legislators.
The judge also vacated the interim orders passed by the court granting a stay on floor test and a direction to the Election Commission not to declare the seats of disqualified MLAs vacant. These legislators now have the option of appealing the judgment in the Supreme Court. The Election Commission will also be free to order by-elections to these seats.
TTV Dhinakaran has said he would consult the 18 MLAs and take a decision on the future course while indicating that his 'personal choice' would be to press for by-elections for these constituencies.
“We expected a favourable verdict but even this one is not a setback. I will consult the 18 MLAs on whether to file an appeal in the Supreme Court. Personally, my feeling is we should go for by-elections”, he said. n P4
