Madras High Court Upholds Speaker Decision on AIADMK MLA Resignations

The Madras High Court upheld the Tamil Nadu Speaker JCD Prabhakar’s decision to accept the resignations of six AIADMK MLAs who left the party and joined the ruling TVK led by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay after voting against their party whip in the Assembly.

A division bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan delivered the order on petitions filed by AIADMK Whip Agri SS Krishnamurthy and Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi president ML Ravi.

The court said the Speaker was not required to conduct an extensive inquiry before accepting the resignations, and pending disqualification proceedings did not prevent the resignations from being accepted. The bench directed that the disqualification cases be completed within two months.

The petitions challenged the acceptance of resignations submitted by S Jayakumar, Maragatham Kumaravel, P Sathyabama, Isakki Subaya, C Vijaya Bhaskar, and M R Vijayabaskar. The MLAs had faced disqualification proceedings after defying the AIADMK whip and voting in favor of the TVK government during a trust vote.

The court noted that resignation and disqualification proceedings are separate constitutional matters. The Speaker and Assembly Secretary argued that an elected member cannot be forced to remain in office if the resignation is voluntary.

AIADMK Whip Agri SS Krishnamurthy had argued that the resignations were linked to inducements and that the Speaker failed to properly examine whether they were voluntary and genuine under Article 190 (3) (b) of the Constitution.

DMK leader T K S Elangovan responded to the political developments by calling for scrutiny of the circumstances behind the MLAs leaving their posts. He made the remarks after the court postponed its verdict on the petitions.

"If the resignation was pressurised by the ruling party, then the Speaker, even though he can accept the resignation, the rule says that they cannot contest in elections for six years," Elangovan said.

Elangovan also addressed wider political issues, including AIADMK claims that the DMK was "hijacking" credit for welfare and development projects. He credited DMK governments with infrastructure expansion and cited Tamil Nadu’s rise in national GDP ranking during the party’s tenure.