In a huge setback for TTV Dhinakaran, the Madras High Court on Thursday upheld Tamil Nadu Speaker P Dhanapal's decision of disqualifying 18 AIADMK MLAs. The verdict comes as good news for Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his government in Tamil Nadu.
The 18 rebel AIADMK MLAs were disqualified on September 18 last year under the anti-defection law after they met the governor and expressed loss of confidence in Chief Minister Palaniswami. The 18 disqualified MLAs are loyal to the sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran, who has now formed his own party the AMMK.
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Justice M Sathyanarayanan heard the pleas of the rivalparties after a bench of then Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar gave a split verdict on June 14.
Meanwhile, 17 of the 18 disqualified MLAs-led by TTV Dhinakaran were holed up in a resort in Tirunelveli district. The decision to shift the MLAs to a resort came after Dhinakaran met Sasikala at a Bengaluru prison amid reports that EPS-led AIADMK will try to poach the MLAs back.
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Dhinakaran said that the verdict is not a setback and the future course of action will be decided after a meeting with the MLAs.
Justice Sathyanarayanan said there was no infirmity in the order of the Assembly Speaker, which was upheld by Banerjee. “All the material that were availble at the time of passing of the order by the Speaker alone have been taken into consideration and this court cannot go into the subsequent events,” he observed while upholding their disqualification.
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