Madras HC to hear pleas of 18 disqualified AIADMK MLAs

The Madras High Court on Tuesday granted permission to 18 AIADMK MLAs, who were disqualified from the party under anti-defection and disqualification rules, to file individual writ petitions challenging their disqualifications and get the cases listed for hearing on Wednesday.

Justice M Duraiswamy granted the permission after Senior Counsel PR Raman made a request to the judge for taking up the cases on Wednesday itself in view of the urgency involved in the issue.

Seeking an urgent hearing, the counsel said the constitutional rights of the 18 MLAs to cast their votes in case of a floor test would be greatly affected if their pleas against their illegal disqualification was not heard on an urgent basis.

Agreeing to hear the pleas on Wednesday, the judge directed them to file a proper petition, reported Times of India.

On Monday, Speaker Dhanapal disqualifed 18 MLAs owing allegiance to sidelined Deputy General Secretary T.T.V. Dinakaran on the ground they had violated the provisions of the anti-defection law by voluntarily giving up membership of the party (AIADMK) when they gave a memorandum to Governor C.V. Rao against the continuance of Chief Minister K. Palaniswami.

The DMK and its allies have 98 members. The disqualified MLAs are: Thanga Tamilselvan, R. Murugan, Cho. Mariappan Kennedy, K. Kathikamu, C. Jayanthi Padmanabhan, P. Palaniappan, V. Senthil Balaji, S. Muthiah, P. Vetrivel, N.G. Parthiban, M. Kothandapani, T.A. Elumalai, M. Rengasamy, R. Thangadurai, R. Balasubramani, 'Ethirkottai' S.G. Subramanian, R. Sundararaj and K. Uma Maheshwari.

The 18 MLAs have neither quit their party membership nor joined another political party, grounds on which an MLA can be disqualified.

With inputs from IANS