Letter to BS: Relief for TN govt as HC upholds disqualification of 18 MLAs

It was a huge relief for the E Palaniswami government in Tamil Nadu that the disqualification of 18 MLAs of TTV Dinakaran-led Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazagam by the Speaker was upheld by the Madras High Court. The government lost no time to claim that it received the judicial sanction to continue with ‘Amma rule’. After the court verdict, it faces no imminent threat to continue in power. Like it or not, the status quo will continue with no major political churning in the foreseeable future. It is only right that nobody even remotely suggested that the judgement could have been coloured by subjectivity despite the difficulty to hold the finer point of law against the petitioners. However, the verdict in the disqualification case was contrary to general expectations. 

Dinakaran did not regard the verdict as a ‘setback’, but called it a learning ‘experience’. It would be a travesty of democracy if the people of as many as 20 constituencies go inordinately unrepresented in the Assembly. The need to hold elections at the earliest cannot be overemphasised. It is possible that the 18 disqualified rebel law makers will go in for appeal on the ground that the anti-defection law cannot be invoked in their case. If so, we want the appellate court to pronounce the verdict in a time-bound manner to ensure that the voters in these constituencies are not denied their right to be represented in the legislature.

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G David Milton, Maruthancode

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