Any decision on disqualifying MLAs can be taken only by him and courts do not have jurisdiction over it, Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal told the Madras High Court today.
His senior counsel C S Vaidyanathan made the submissions on a plea moved by DMK whip R Sakkarapani, seeking the disqualification of deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and 10 other MLAs, who voted against the confidence motion moved by Chief Minister K Palaniswami on February 18, 2017.
"A court can interfere on the decisions already taken by the Speaker, but it cannot direct the speaker to act upon complaints," the counsel said.
He said that a plea has been pending with a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court to decide on the powers of the high courts over the decisions of the Assembly Speakers.
Recording the submissions, the first bench, comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quoddhose, posted the plea for February 13.
The issue pertains to a batch of pleas being heard by the bench, involving powers of the Speaker and jurisdiction of the court to interfere in such matters.
The petitions include the present plea moved by the whip of DMK.
Recently, the bench concluded the hearing on the pleas moved by the 18 MLAs assailing their disqualification, and now has taken up the plea moved by the DMK whip.
When the plea came up, senior counsel Kapil Sibal, representing Sakkarapani, submitted that the Speaker failed to take action against Panneerselvam and 10 other MLAs for voting against the motion of confidence on February 18, 2017.
"The speaker has so far not justified his inaction against the MLAs either to us or to the court. But he swiftly acted against the 18 MLAs who made a representation to the Governor, withdrawing their support to the Chief Minister," he submitted.
The MLAs met the Governor on August 22, and the speaker initiated action against them on August 24, he said.
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