CHENNAI: Madras High Court has dismissed writ petitions filed by DMK whip R Sakkarapani and some of the 18 disqualified AIADMK MLAs, including P Vetrivel, to disqualify Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and his team of MLAs for having voted against the Edappadi K Palaniswami-led government during a trust vote held on February 18, 2017. Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose, in their verdict, maintained that issuing such a direction to the Speaker would amount to judicial overreach and encroaching upon the powers of the legislature.
They also held that the court could not issue a direction to the Speaker to act upon representations made by the petitioners when he, in his discretion, had chosen not to act. While the petitioners had attributed malafide intention on the part of Speaker P Dhanapal in not having initiated action against OPS and his team, the Division Bench refused to go into the veracity of such allegations.
After the verdict, the judges however accepted a plea made by senior counsel R Shanmugasundaram, representing the DMK whip, and gave liberty to the petitioner to file an appeal before the Supreme Court challenging their verdict since the case involved interpretation of constitutional provisions. Judgment has been reserved in the case since last month after hearing elaborate arguments advanced by both sides.
