DMK seeks urgent hearing in SC of its plea to disqualify 11 AIADMK MLAs

The DMK Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking urgent hearing of its plea for disqualification of 11 AIADMK MLAs for voting against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisamy in a confidence motion in 2017. A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi took note of the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the DMK, that the plea required urgent hearing as no steps have been taken till date by the assembly speaker against the MLAs.

The bench, which also comprised justices, Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose, said it will consider the listing of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's petition seeking disqualification of the MLAs, including Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam. The Madras High Court had, on April 27 last year, dismissed the petition.

The decision had come as a huge relief to the Palaniswami government which could have otherwise been reduced to a minority in the state assembly. Panneerselvam and the other 10 MLAs, then in the rebel camp, had voted against the trust vote sought by Palaniswami on February 18, 2017.

The high court had rejected the petition by DMK whip Sakkarapani, citing pendency of a petition in the Supreme Court on the powers of a court to issue directions to the Speaker of a state assembly. The DMK leader had contended that by voting against the trust motion these MLAs had violated the whip issued by the ruling party and hence attracted disqualification under the anti-defection law.

Panneerselvam and other MLAs, who had then revolted against the AIADMK leadership, voted against the trust vote sought by Palaniswami on February 18, 2017. Palaniswami had eventually won the vote 122-11.