Madras High Court Upholds Speaker's Greenlight To 6 AIADMK MLAs' Resignation

The Madras High Court has upheld the Tamil Nadu assembly Speaker's decision to accept the resignations of six rebel AIADMK MLAs who subsequently switched allegiance to the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK). The court also said the pending disqualification proceedings against them should be concluded within two months.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice SA Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan ruled on Tuesday that it could not interfere with the Speaker's decision to accept the resignations. The court also held that the Speaker was not required to issue notice to the legislators or seek explanations before accepting their resignations.

The ruling came on petitions filed by AIADMK whip Agri Krishnamurthy and National People's Sakthi Party leader M L Ravi challenging the Speaker's decision.

The six MLAs - Maragatham Kumaravel (Madurantakam), Sathyabhama (Dharapuram), Isakki Subbiah (Ambasamudram), Jayakumar (Perundurai), MR Vijayabhaskar (Karur) and C Vijayabhaskar (Viralimalai) had voted in favour of the TVK government in defiance of their party whip, triggering disqualification proceedings as part of a 25-member rebels group.

These six law makers subsequently resigned from the assembly and joined the ruling TVK. The Speaker maintained that their resignation letters were in order and had been submitted voluntarily in his presence.

Arguing against the acceptance of the resignations, AIADMK whip Agri Krishnamurthy contended that the Speaker should have first disposed of the disqualification petition. He questioned whether a meaningful inquiry had been conducted to establish that the resignations were voluntary, pointing out that the legislators had met a minister and joined the TVK within minutes of submitting their letters.

READ | Court Ruling Today On AIADMK Plea Against Nod To 6 Rebel MLAs' Resignations

The Speaker argued that a legislator could not be compelled to remain in office after voluntarily resigning. It maintained that allegations of horse-trading or inducements could be examined in the disqualification proceedings, but were not relevant to deciding whether the resignations were voluntary.

The rebel MLAs also maintained that their resignations were genuine and voluntary.

Two of the six legislators -  Sathyabhama and Maragatham Kumaravel  recently won the Dharapuram and Madurantakam by-elections, respectively, as TVK candidates.