The Madras High Court today said Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal has chosen to stay away from the proceedings before the court challenging the en masse suspension of 79 DMK MLAs.
"The first respondent (the Speaker) has chosen to stay away from the proceedings," the First Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan said in an order on petitions filed by Leader of Opposition in the Assembly M K Stalin of DMK and another MLA.
The bench directed the counsel who appeared on behalf of the Assembly Secretary, to file a counter-affidavit within four weeks and gave two weeks time to Stalin to file his rejoinder to it.
In the previous hearing, as there was none to take the notice on behalf of the Speaker, the bench had allowed the counsel for Stalin and the petitioner PTR Thiagarajan to serve a private notice on him. It had declined to stay the suspension.
On August 17, a total of 79 MLAs of DMK were suspended for a week for disrupting the Assembly proceedings.
The petitions have challenged their en masse suspension and sought a direction declaring all proceedings and actions taken as illegal, ultra vires and unconstitutional.
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