Chennai: Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar has issued notices to four former AIADMK legislators who joined the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), intensifying proceedings in a politically significant disqualification case stemming from the Assembly confidence vote earlier this year, IANS reported on Sunday.

Source: IANS via AsiaPost

The four legislators have been directed to appear for hearings on November 10, 11 and 12. The Speaker is expected to hear final arguments on November 17 before deciding on the disqualification petitions, the report said. Legal representatives of AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami are also expected to present their arguments during the hearings.

Source: IANS via AsiaPost

The case dates back to May 13, when the Tamil Nadu Assembly held a confidence vote. During the proceedings, 25 AIADMK legislators allegedly defied their party whip and voted in favour of the government. AIADMK whip Agri Krishnamoorthy then petitioned the Speaker seeking their disqualification under the Constitution's anti-defection provisions. Palaniswami subsequently withdrew the complaint against 21 of the legislators, effectively pardoning them, but the party pursued proceedings against four who had resigned from the AIADMK and joined the TVK. Two other legislators, M.R. Vijayabhaskar and C. Vijayabhaskar, also submitted their resignations, bringing the number of legislators involved in the pending proceedings to six.

Source: IANS via AsiaPost

The notices are the latest development in the same case: Krishnamoorthy had approached the Madras High Court challenging the Speaker's decision to accept the resignations, and a Division Bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan upheld the resignations as genuine and voluntary, while directing the Speaker to dispose of the pending disqualification petitions within two months. Following that judicial directive, the Speaker accelerated the proceedings and scheduled the personal hearings, IANS said. In a related earlier development, the Supreme Court had refused a plea seeking a CBI probe into the AIADMK MLAs' exit to the TVK.

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The proceedings carry considerable political significance because Maragatham Kumaravel and Sathyabama, two legislators linked to the controversy, have already contested and won Assembly by-elections on TVK tickets. An adverse ruling could raise questions about their eligibility to continue as legislators, depending on the decision's legal consequences, the report said. The Speaker's ruling after the November 17 hearing is expected to have important implications for the TVK and for Tamil Nadu's political equations. The World Opinion also reported the Speaker's notices and the November 10-12 hearing schedule.

Source: The World Opinion