NE LEGAL BUREAU
NEW DELHI, FEB 14
The Tamil Nadu Government on Friday informed the Supreme Court that Assembly Speaker, P Dhanapal, initiated action on DMK petition, but also alleged that the speaker did not act on a plea seeking disqualification of 11 AIADMK lawmakers.
The 11 lawmakers, in 2017, voted against Chief Minister E Palaniswami during the confidence vote that year. Notably, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam was one of them.
A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde, Justice B R Gavai and Justice Surya Kant took note of the submission and disposed of the petition filed by the DMK. The plea had sought disqualification of Panneerselvam and 10 others for having voted against the Palaniswami government when they were part of the rebel camp.
It had contended that by voting against the trust motion, these MLAs violated the whip issued by the ruling party and hence attracted disqualification under the anti-defection law.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocate Amit Anand Tiwari appeared for the DMK in the case.
