Supreme Court stays high court order restraining TVK MLA from floor test
PTC News Desk: The Supreme Court on Wednesday slammed the Madras High Court and stayed its order restraining a TVK leader from participating in floor test in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.
The plea of TVK MLA R Seenivasa Sethupathi, assailing the high court order, was mentioned for urgent listing and hearing on Monday before a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant by senior lawyer Abhishek Singhvi. The bench agreed to list the case for hearing on Wednesday.
"This is atrocious to say the least," a bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi passed the interim order while hearing a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by Sethupathi challenging the Madras High Court's direction.
The Supreme Court of India has stayed the proceedings pending before the Madras High Court in the case related to the Tiruppattur Assembly election dispute.
The bench questioned senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi, who was appearing for DMK leader KR Periakaruppan, on how a writ petition challenging an election result could be heard by the high court. The Supreme Court observed that although the high court itself had said the proper remedy was an election petition, it still chose to entertain the writ petition.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the apex court said, “We have heard the senior counsels for the parties. Counsel for the respondent is granted two weeks to file a reply. In the meantime, the impugned order shall remain stayed. Further proceedings before the High Court also stayed.”
The dispute relates to the No. 185 Tiruppattur Assembly constituency in Sivagangai, where MLA Sethupathi had defeated KR Periakaruppan by just one vote.
Periakaruppan later moved the Madras High Court, alleging irregularities during vote counting, including the rejection of a postal ballot that was allegedly sent to the wrong constituency.
In an interim order, the high court had barred Sethupathi from voting or taking part in any floor test, confidence motion, no-confidence motion or any proceeding where the strength of the Assembly would be tested until further orders.
Meanwhile, the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam government led by Vijay won the vote of confidence on Wednesday.
- With inputs from agencies
