Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami and AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran.
7 years ago
Oct 26, 2018
The Madras High Court will pronounce its verdict in the case of disqualification of 18 MLAs of the Tamil Nadu Assembly at 10.30 am on Thursday, 25 October.
The strength of the Tamil Nadu Assembly is 234 members
The AIDMK government has a wafer-thin majority of 116 out of 234 MLAs
The DMK and its allies have 97 MLAs, one short of the Thiruvarur constituency that fell vacant after former CM M Karunanidhi’s death in August this year
The disqualified MLAs are loyal to TTV Dhinakaran, who has now formed his own party - the AMMK
The 18 AIADMK MLAs will be appealing against the Madras HC verdict which had upheld their disqualification
A day after the Madras High Court upheld their disqualification, the 18 MLAs who were disqualified on Thursday, 25 October, will move the Supreme Court against the HC verdict, said Thanga Tamilselvan, one of the disqualified MLAs.
Chief Election Commissioner, OP Rawat, speaking to ANI, said “since disqualifications will create vacancies and whenever there are vacancies, we're required to hold elections (bypolls) to those vacancies within 6 months, so the Commission will see it from that angle.”
DMK Chief MK Stalin reacted to the Madras HC verdict by stating that “democracy must be safeguarded.”
“Already two assembly constituencies are vacant, now with Madras HC verdict, 18 seats have fallen vacant. Therefore, EC should take steps immediately to fill them,” Stalin said.
I welcome the HC verdict. Even if bypolls are announced for the 18 assembly seats, Amma’s government will win all of them, rest of the things the EC has to decide.
"All the material that were availble at the time of passing of the order by the Speaker alone have been taken into consideration and this court cannot go into the subsequent events," he observed while upholding their disqualification.
Security has been tightened outside court hall number 6 of Madras High Court from where Justice M Sathyanarayanan would be delivering the verdict in the 18 MLAs disqualification case, reported News18.
The Madras High Court on 14 June, delivered a split verdict on the petitions challenging the disqualification of 18 AIADMK MLAs loyal to sidelined leader TTV Dhinakaran.
While High Court Chief Justice Indira Banerjee upheld the Speaker's order disqualifying the MLAs, Justice M Sundar struck it down on the ground on that it violates the principles of natural justice and therefore should be subjected to judicial review.
According to The News Minute, the matter will now be referred to a third judge, who will be selected by the second-most senior judge in the court, namely Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh.
This process will take at least two more months. The third judge, after he/she is appointed, will again take cognisance of arguments from both sides, and then deliver the final verdict.
The verdict on Thursday also means that there will neither be bypolls in the 18 seats nor will a floor test be held till the matter is decided by the court.
