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The people’s newsroom

PoliticsTamil Nadu

Madras High Court upholds Speaker's acceptance of four AIADMK MLAs' resignations

The four quit and joined the TVK on the same day in May. The court found the resignations genuine but told the Speaker to finish disqualification cases against them within two months.

From the editorial desk · ChennaiPublished
Madras High Court building, Chennai
Madras High Court building, ChennaiPhoto: Raki_Man / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

Key points

  1. The High Court found the four MLAs' resignations genuine and voluntary.
  2. It said resigning does not end disqualification proceedings for conduct before the resignation.
  3. The Speaker must complete those proceedings within two months.

The Madras High Court on Tuesday upheld the Tamil Nadu Speaker’s decision to accept the resignations of four AIADMK MLAs who quit and joined the ruling TVK on the same day, but held that their resignations do not wipe out the disqualification cases against them.

The First Bench of Chief Justice S A Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan found that the resignations were genuine and that the Speaker was not expected to hold a detailed inquiry into them. It directed the Speaker to complete the pending disqualification proceedings under the Tenth Schedule within two months.

A same-day resignation

The case goes back to the confidence vote in May. The TVK, led by Chief Minister Vijay, won 108 seats, short of a majority, and won the vote on 13 May with 144 votes after 25 AIADMK MLAs backed it against their party’s whip. Disqualification proceedings were started against all 25 the next day and later dropped against those who apologised.

On 25 May, four of the MLAs handed in their resignations, met the TVK’s general secretary and joined the party. Speaker J C D Prabhakar accepted the resignations the same day and a gazette notification followed.

The AIADMK, through its whip Agri S S Krishnamurthy, argued that the speed of it all pointed to horse-trading and that the Speaker should have inquired whether the resignations were voluntary and heard the party first. Its counsel, led by senior counsel V Giri, called the procedure a “sham”.

The other side

The Speaker told the court he had questioned each MLA and was satisfied there was no coercion. Senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan argued that under Article 190 the Speaker must check that a resignation is genuine but need not look into a member’s motives. Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy said that resigning before joining another party is not malicious, and that a member’s right to leave a party is part of dissent in a democracy.

The Assembly Secretary told the court that accepting a resignation does not free a member from disqualification for earlier conduct. The court agreed, which means the four former MLAs could still be disqualified for defying the whip in May.

In a related case, the Supreme Court last week refused to reopen the dropped disqualification proceedings against 21 other AIADMK MLAs.