CHENNAI: The DMK whip has approached Madras High court seeking direction to the Speaker to disqualify deputy CM O. Pannerselvam and 10 other MLAs for voting against the Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami during the ‘vote of confidence’ motion moved by him in the Assembly on February 18.
Earlier, Justice M. Duraiswamy posted the hearing to October 4 on petitions challenging the disqualification of 18 AIADMK MLA’s belonging to TTV Dhinakaran group and a petition opposing the notices issued by the Assembly Privilege’s Committee to 21 DMK MLA’s for showing gutka packets. Meanwhile, on Monday, the DMK whip filed another petition in Madras High Court.
Chakrapani said that inaction of Speaker is mala fide and he had not even issued notice to them. “The inaction of Speaker against the 11 MLAs is deliberate,” he said.
“The Speaker has not even issued notice to them in accordance with provisions of 10th Schedule of the Constitution and Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules 1986 for defying the party-line whip issued by the Chief Government whip S. Rajendran.”
The 11 MLAs- O. Panneerselvam, Aarukutty, Shanmuganathan, Manickam, Manoharan, K. Pandiarajan, Manoranjitham, Saravanan, Semmalai, Chinnaraj and R. Natraj- voted against the government. Pollachi Legislator Arunkumar had abstained from voting without the permission of the party, he added.
He noted that they were not even condoned within 15 days of voting. Despite lapse of more than six months, notices had not been issued to them, which shows that the Speaker acting in a partisan manner.
As per Para 2 (1) (b) of the 10th Schedule, if a member of the House votes against the whip and such conduct in not condoned within 15 days, then such member is disqualified for being member of the House on the ground of defection.
The Speaker’s silence prompted the present CM to select O. Panneerselvam as Deputy CM and K. Pandirajan as a minister. “This is a clear act of corruption and quid pro quo for supporting a minority government,” he said.
The petition is likely to come up for hearing before the vacation judge on September 27.
