Chennai: DMK Working President M.K. Stalin has informed Madras High Court that the allegations of undue influence being exerted on the AIADMK MLAs in captivity were raised repeatedly by members belonging to DMK, but the Speaker did not even pay heed to them on February 18 when the confidence motion was moved by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and a decision was taken on the floor of the Assembly.
Stalin said this in his rejoinder filed to the counter affidavit filed by the Assembly secretary and Chief Minister in response to his petition seeking a CBI probe into the alleged payments made to some ruling AIADMK party MLAs ahead of the confidence motion moved by Palaniswami.
Originally, Stalin filed a PIL to declare as illegal, the decision taken by the Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker on the floor of the assembly on February 18 on the confidence motion moved by the Chief Minister. While this petition was pending, following the reports in a section of media about the alleged pay-offs of crores of rupees to some MLAs for their support to the trust vote, Stalin filed the current miscellaneous petition. Opposing his plea, the Assembly Secretary and the Chief Minister filed their respective counter affidavits.
In his rejoinder, Stalin submitted that any offer of bribe in the form of money to the tune of crores of rupees as well as gold worth an equivalent amount would have a vitiating effect on the conduct of free and fair voting and would be repugnant to the basic principles of democracy. When the allegations of detaining MLAs in a resort against their will and committing undue influence for casting votes were raised in the house with sufficient evidence, the Speaker promised to conduct an enquiry into those allegations but proceeded to conduct voting without taking any action, he added.
He said the Assembly secretary in his counter stated that the same allegations have been presented to the Governor who has in turn directed the Speaker to take appropriate action. The inaction of the Speaker even after being directed by the Governor was a relevant factor in further establishing the mala fides on his part.
