SC to hear DMK's plea for disqualification of Panneerselvam, 10 other AIADMK MLAs

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a plea filed by DMK seeking disqualification of Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and 10 other AIADMK MLAs for voting against the confidence motion initiated by Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami in February 2017. A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said that it would look into the issue after the petition was mentioned for urgent hearing.

In September 2017, DMK had approached the Madras High Court with the same plea but it was dismissed by the court. According to DMK, the action of Panneerselvam and the 10 other MLAs in having voted against the whip came within the ambit of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules, 1986.