{"id":27712,"date":"2017-09-20T18:39:38","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T13:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/?p=27712"},"modified":"2017-09-20T18:43:24","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T13:13:24","slug":"madras-high-court-stays-tamil-nadu-assembly-floor-test-till-oct-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/india-news\/madras-high-court-stays-tamil-nadu-assembly-floor-test-till-oct-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Madras HC stays Tamil Nadu assembly floor test till Oct 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Court says floor test will be conducted once it disposes off petition challenging disqualification of 18 TTV Dhinakaran camp MLAs<\/em><\/p>\n

In a decision that could potentially upset Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami\u2019s calculations of surviving a floor test in the state assembly, the Madras High Court,\u00a0on Wednesday<\/span>, extended the stay on the trust vote till\u00a0October 4<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The court has said that the floor test can be conducted once it disposes off a petition that challenges the Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker\u2019s decision of disqualifying 18 MLAs loyal to sidelined AIADMK<\/a> leader TTV Dhinakaran.<\/p>\n

The 18 legislators, who have been sequestered at a resort in Coorg for several days, had been disqualified by Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker P Dhanpal,\u00a0on Monday<\/span>, in an apparent bid to prevent them from voting against the Palaniswami government in the floor test jointly sought by them and the AIADMK\u2019s arch rival, DMK.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday<\/span>, though the court refused to rescind the disqualification of the 18 legislators, its stay on the trust vote and by-elections for the vacancies is being seen as a boost for Dhinakaran.<\/p>\n

\u201cJustice is on our side and we are confident that the final verdict will come in our favour,\u201d Dhinakaran said after the court ruling. CR Sarsawathi, spokesperson for the Dhinakaran-led AIADMK faction, too claimed that the final judgment would come in their favour as \u201cour MLAs did nothing wrong\u2026 They have only told the Governor that they did not have faith in the chief minister.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dhinakaran has been engaged in a turf-war with Palaniswami. AIADMK factions led by Palaniswami and his deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam \u2013 the two had recently united to prevent Dhinakaran\u2019s aunt and AIADMK general secretary VK Sasikala from influencing the party\u2019s decision making \u2013 had recently convened a general council meeting of the party to formally expel the two leaders from the top two positions in the party. Dhinakaran was the party\u2019s deputy general secretary.<\/p>\n

Eight of the 18 MLAs disqualified by the Assembly Speaker had moved the court,\u00a0on Monday<\/span>, challenging the action against them under the anti-defection law. The dissident MLAs had challenged the Speaker\u2019s order as \u2018unauthorised\u2019 and \u2018illegal\u2019 in their individual petitions. Dhinakaran had said the Speaker\u2019s move was aimed at helping Palaniswami survive the floor test.<\/p>\n

Justice Duraiswamy of the Madras High Court<\/a> heard all the sides,\u00a0on Wednesday<\/span>, and gave time to all the counsels to file their replies tillOctober 4<\/span>\u00a0when proceedings for the final hearing in the case will take place.<\/p>\n

According to a report in the Hindustan Times,\u00a0on Wednesday<\/span>, the court room was packed with a battery of legal luminaries including Kapil Sibal<\/a> who is representing DMK working president MK Stalin. Stalin has sought the court\u2019s direction to Tamil Nadu <\/a>Governor Vidyasagar Rao to order a floor test and also challenged the Speaker\u2019s notice to 21 DMK legislators.<\/p>\n

Besides, former Union minister and Congress leader Salman Khurshid and senior advocate Dushyant Dave are representing the Dhinakaran camp while senior Supreme Court advocate Aryaman Sundaram is pleading on behalf of Speaker P Dhanpal. The state government is being represented by former attorney general Mukul Rohtagi.<\/p>\n

A visibly confident Dhinakaran told media persons that \u201cthe traitors will lose and be sent packing home.\u201d<\/p>\n

DMK spokesperson A Sarvanan has said that\u00a0Wednesday\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0ruling is \u201ca consent order, which stays floor test and imposes partial stay on disqualification of 18 MLAs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The disqualification of the 18 MLAs had brought down the simple majority mark in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly to 110 as against 117 before the disqualification. The Palaniswami government claims support of 114 MLAs, who had attended a general council meeting that ousted jailed leader Sasikala and Dhinakaran<\/a> from party posts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"