MLAs disqualification: HC orders notice to Pondy Speaker

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JAN. 4. The Madras High Court has ordered notice to the Speaker of the Pondicherry Assembly on writ petitions filed by three MLAs, who were recently disqualified from the House.

After hearing the counsel of three MLAs, Messrs S. Manohar, A. Elumalai and K. Rajasekharan, today, Mr.Justice K.P. Sivasubramaniam directed issue of notice to the other respondents including the Assembly Secretary, the State Chief secretary, and two TMC MLAs, returnable by one week.

In the 30-member Assembly, TMC had five MLAs. Of them, the three MLA, namely the petitioners, broke away from the party to form the TMC (Manohar group). But the other two namely, Mr. Theni Jayakumar and Mr. Kandasamy sought the Speaker to disqualify them. Though, the three-member group objected to this, the Speaker announced their disqualification on December 25, under the Anti-Defection law.

They challenged the disqualification on the ground that the Pondicherry TMC unit was different from the Tamil Nadu unit of the party. The MLAs alleged that the disqualification was made only to maintain the majority of the ruling party in the Assembly. Also they comprised more than third of the TMC unit.

The petitions sought to declare the disqualification notification as unconstitutional and arbitrary.

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Section  : Southern States
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