The Madras High Court on Wednesday extended the stay on the floor test in Tamil Nadu assembly, giving a breather for all the three AIADMK factions. The stay has been extended till further orders on October 4. The court also said no elections will be held for the seats which were occupied by the 18 MLAs of the TTV faction who were disqualified by Speaker P. Dhanapal.
Justice Duraisamy, after hearing the arguments put forth by senior counsels representing T.T.V. Dhinakarran, DMK, Dhanapal and Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palanisamy, pronounced an interim stay until October 4. The stay has been extended until the case involving the disqualification of the 18 TTV faction MLAs is disposed.
However, there is no stay on the disqualification of the 18 MLAs. The court heard the writ petition filed by the DMK seeking a floor test and also a petition filed by the TTV faction MLAs challenging the speaker’s decision to disqualify them. The 18 MLAs, in their petition, said the speaker's decision was illegal and he was not authorised to disqualify them as they have petitioned the governor saying they lost confidence in the chief minister. They also asked the court to quash the speaker's decision and restore their Constitutional rights.
Senior counsel Dushyant Dave, appearing on behalf of the MLAs of the TTV faction argued that the speaker's action is biased. “He is not behaving like a speaker, but like a partyman. We had voted in support of government in February. But even after a specific complaint, there is no action against the 11 MLAs who refused to support the government.” Dave said.
“Our only demand is changing the CM, but not bringing down this government. We still remain in AIADMK and we have not defected to any other party.” the counsel said. He also argued that the order of speaker was against natural justice. “The letter given by MLAs to governor is similar to the letter given against Yedyurappa in Karnataka. Speaker's action is biased. There should be inner democracy in a party to raise voices against corruption. Anti-defection law has been misused by the speaker. He is being influenced by somebody.”
Dave also argued that simply meeting the speaker will not invite disqualification. “The MLAs were not given enough time to explain their stand. Everything was hurried in three weeks and the MLAs were disqualified,” he argued.
Citing the 2010 Balchandra L. Jarkiholi versus B.S. Yeddyurappa case in Karnataka, Dave noted that the disqualification of the 11 BJP MLAs were quashed by the Supreme Court. He further said the floor test should not happen in the assembly and that bypolls should not happen in the constituencies represented by the 18 disqualified MLAs.
Arguing on behalf of Speaker P. Dhanapal, senior counsel Aryama Sundaram told the court that there can be no floor test for the next few days. Sundaram argued that the decision for bypolls for the 18 constituencies is left to the Election Commission and that the speaker cannot take a call except notifying the vacancy. He contested the argument that the speaker has been getting instructions from Delhi.
After Dave and Sundaram completed their arguments, the case was adjourned to October 4. The court also said no elections should be held in the 18 constituencies which have fallen vacant after speaker disqualified the MLAs.
The speaker had, on Monday, disqualified the 18 MLAs who are supporting TTV. Following disqualification, a gazette notification was issued declaring the vacancies in the constituencies. The speaker, in his notification, also said the vacancy has arisen due to anti-defection law.
By disqualifying them, the strength of the assembly has come down from 234 minus Jayalalithaa to 215. In such a situation, a floor test will be advantage EPS and OPS factions as the government already has 111 MLAs in its side, while the opposition DMK has only 98 and there are three independent MLAs who contested in the AIADMK’s two-leaves symbol and won.
The extension of the stay, however, has come as a set back for the EPS faction, which was all set for a no-confidence motion as they had the magic number after disqualifying the 18 MLAs.
