Madras High Court: All 18 AIADMK MLAs to remain disqualified

The Madras High Court delivered its verdict on petitions challenging the disqualification of the 18 AIADMK legislators, who were loyal to the rebel party leader TTV Dinakaran on Thursday 25. The Madras High Court upheld the Tamil Nadu speaker's decision. The 18 AIADMK MLAs still stand disqualified. It's a massive setback for TTV Dinakaran camp. The bypoll is to take place in 18 Tamil Nadu constituencies.

The 18 AIADMK legislators were disqualified by Speaker P Dhanapal for dissenting against the whip of the party.

On August 22, 2017, the 18 MLAs were in a meeting with the then Governor Vidyasagar Rao. This persuaded the Speaker to disqualify them as they had given the Governor letters withdrawing their support for the Chief Minister.

The speaker had disqualified the 18 MLAs by exercising his powers under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution (popularly known as the anti-defection law) and the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on grounds of defection) Rules of 1986.

Supreme Court-appointed third judge of the Madras HC, Justice M Satyanarayana, upholds the validity of Tamil Nadu speaker’s decision on September 18 2017.

Prior to this judgement, on June 14, the first bench of the court passed a split verdict, with the then Chief Justice Indira Banerjee upholding the decision of the Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal in disqualifying the MLAs under the anti-defection law. The second judge, Justice M Sundar differed and set aside the disqualification order the Speaker on the grounds of non-compliance with principles of natural justice and violation of constitutional mandate.

Eventually, the senior-most judge of the high court,  Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh appointed Justice S Vimala as the third judge to decide the case. Dissatisfied over the choice of judge, one among the disqualified legislators approached the Supreme Court seeking to transfer the disqualification case to itself. Finally, the vacation bench of the Supreme Court nominated Justice Sathyanarayanan as the third judge.

Justice M Satyanarayana, the third judge who was appointed by the Supreme Court to be the tie-breaker in the case, pronounced his judgment on Thursday morning. He had earlier reserved his verdict.