Tamil Nadu speaker's reply sought in MLAs' case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker P. Dhanapal to inform whether he was going to take cognizance of a petition seeking disqualification of 11 AIADMK MLAs, including deputy chief minister O. Panneerselvam, pending with him for last three years. The petitions before TN Assembly Speaker Dhanapal had sought the unseating of 11 AIADMK lawmakers for defying the party whip and voting against the confidence motion moved by the chief minister  E. Palaniswami in February 2017. A bench comprising Chief Justice S.A.Bobde, and Justices B.R.Gavai and Surya Kant sought response from the Speaker Dhanapal as the court was told that he was sitting on the petition seeking the disqualification of 11 AIADMK lawmakers for last three years without doing anything. “The three-year delay was unnecessary. You (Speaker) needed to have taken action. Prima facie, if there is inaction on the part of the Speaker, it has to be cured," Chief Justice Bobde told Tamil Nadu Advocate General Vijay Narayan.

“I will place the court’s view before the Speaker. However, in the meantime he takes action, he can’t be impeded”. Advocate General Narayan told the court.