Acceptance of resignation of four AIADMK MLAs does not defeat disqualification proceedings, TN govt informs Madras high court

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu assembly secretary has informed the Madras high court that acceptance of resignation of four AIADMK MLAs will not operate to extinguish, defeat or render infructuous the disqualification proceedings pending against the legislators under the tenth schedule of the Constitution.

In her nine-page counter affidavit filed in response to the petitions moved by AIADMK whip Agri S S Krishnamurthy and Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi challenging the decision of the speaker to accept the resignations, assembly secretary R Santhi submitted that as authoritatively held by the Supreme Court in Shrimanth Balasaheb Patil case, resignation and disqualification operate in two distinct and independent fields.

The counter filed through advocate general Vijay Narayan added that acceptance of resignation does not absolve a member of the consequences of disqualification in respect of conduct anterior to the resignation. The disqualification proceedings survive and remain liable to be adjudicated, she said and cited apex court judgements which held that when the disqualification proceedings are pending consideration before the speaker, in exercise of his quasi-judicial jurisdiction under the tenth schedule, judicial review of the proceeding is confined only to the stage after a final determination is made by the speaker.

“The court will not interfere at any anterior or interlocutory stage. A direction calling upon the speaker to adjudicate in a particular manner or within a time frame fixed by the court would amount to impermissible pre-decisional interference with the functioning of a constitutional tribunal,” she said. In so far as the challenge to the consequential declaration of vacancy and filling of the casual vacancy, she said the filling of vacancy is governed by the Representation of People Act (RPA) and falls within the domain of the Election Commission of India (ECI), in which the Assembly speaker has no role. Taking the counter on record, the first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan adjourned the cases for final hearing on July 13.