PIL seeks disqualification proceeding against 3 AIADMK MLAs who resigned days after election in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi's M L Ravi has moved the Madras high court seeking to declare TN govt's gazette notification accepting resignation of three AIADMK MLA's Maragatham Kumaravel, S Jayakumar, and P Sathyabama as illegal, arbitrary, unconstitutional and contrary to the object and purpose of 10th schedule of the Constitution.He wanted the court to direct the Speaker of TN Assembly to adjudicate and dispose of pending disqualification petitions in accordance with law and the principles laid down by the Supreme Court.According to the petitioner, the Supreme Court in Kihoto Hollohan case had recognised that the tenth schedule constitutes a vital constitutional mechanism intended to strengthen parliamentary democracy and prevent erosion of public confidence in elected institutions. However, the action of the Speaker defeats the very purpose of the constitutional scheme.The Speaker, while exercising powers under the Constitution, is required to act in a manner that advances constitutional objectives and not in a manner that renders constitutional safeguards illusory. Acceptance of resignations without first deciding pending disqualification petitions permits circumvention of the tenth schedule and therefore amounts to an arbitrary exercise of constitutional power, he added. The plea filed in the high court is likely to be taken up for hearing on Friday.