Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar has issued notices to four former AIADMK MLAs who joined Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) in the defection case. Disqualification proceedings are going on against these MLAs for violating the party whip during the trust vote held in the Assembly this year.
The Speaker of the Assembly has directed the four former MLAs to appear for the hearing on 10, 11 and 12 November. Final arguments in the case are likely to be heard on November 17. After this the Speaker will decide on the disqualification petitions.
This entire controversy is related to the trust vote held in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on 13 May. During this, 25 AIADMK MLAs were accused of violating the party whip and voting in favor of the government. After the voting, AIADMK Chief Whip Agri Krishnamurthy had filed a petition with the Speaker of the Assembly demanding cancellation of membership of these MLAs under the anti-defection provisions of the Constitution.
However, later AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami had decided to withdraw the complaint against 21 MLAs. This gave relief to these MLAs despite violating the party's instructions.
But the party continued the disqualification proceedings against four MLAs who later resigned from AIADMK and joined TVK. Meanwhile, two other MLAs M.R. Vijayabhaskar and C. Vijayabhaskar also resigned, taking the number of MLAs involved in the pending proceedings to six.
After this, Agri Krishnamurthy challenged the decision of accepting the resignation of the Assembly Speaker in the Madras High Court. Chief Justice Sushruta Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. A division bench of Arul Murugan upheld the resignations, saying they were genuine and voluntary.
The court had also directed the Assembly Speaker to dispose of the pending disqualification petitions within two months. Following the court's instructions, the Assembly Speaker has expedited the proceedings and scheduled a personal hearing of the four former MLAs. Palaniswami's legal representatives are also likely to present their arguments during the hearing.
The political importance of this case has also increased because two MLAs related to the controversy, Maragatham Kumaravel and Satyabama, have won the assembly by-elections by contesting on TVK tickets.