TN Speaker, Governor's action liable to be questioned: Congress

The Congress on Monday said that the delay in action by the Tamil Nadu Governor and Speaker is something "which is seriously liable to be questioned in court" adding that the Speaker's decision to disqualify rebel AIADMK lawmakers is also "liable to be challenged".

"Certainly every party in the country is monitoring, it is not that the Congress party is obliged to comment upon other party's event. But we have no hesitation in saying that the huge delay in action by the Speaker and by the Governor is something which would be seriously liable to be questioned in court," said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu singhvi.

Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao, who met President Ram Nath Kovind and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley here, is reaching Chennai on Tuesday morning and may issue orders summoning a special session of the Assembly for the Chief Minister K. Palaniswami to prove his majority.

Eighteen AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to rebel leader T.T.V. Dinakaran were on Monday disqualified by Speaker P. Dhanapal, giving the ruling side an edge in a show of strength which now seems imminent.

On this, Singhvi said: "The Speaker's decision is also liable to be challenged fully as being actuated if the court so holds, and I am saying nothing here, by malafides, by a motivated desire to achieve a pre-decided result, because you know that there is already a proceeding pending in the High Court."

"In that proceeding, there is a demand for a confidence vote. Pursuant to that demand or no-confidence vote, pursuant to that demand, the government of the day in that state has made a statement that they will convey the date of the confidence vote to the court shortly.

"I believe the matter is coming up tomorrow or day after. Just before conveying the date of no-confidence or confidence to the court, it was quite expected that a government actuated by malafides would take this stand and that is what has happened. But this of course fully subject to legal challenges, which I have no doubt will be seen in the near future," he added.

--IANS

sid/vd