Six DMDK MLAs, who were suspended from the Tamil Nadu Assembly for six months, have appealed against a single judge order in the Madras High Court, seeking a direction to allow them to vote in the June 27 Rajya Sabha polls.
When the matter came up today, a Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Kumar Agrawal and Justice M Sathyanarayanan, ordered issue of notice to the Assembly secretary, returnable on June 24.
Justice S Rajeswaran had on June 5 dismissed the petition filed by DMDK members V C Chandhira Kumar, P Parthasarthi, T Murugesan, K Nallathambi, S Senthilkumar and R Arulselvam, challenging their suspension from the Assembly.
The members were suspended for a year by Speaker P Dhanapal after they allegedly assaulted Michael Rayappan, DMDK MLA from Radhapuram, during Assembly proceedings on Feb 8.
The petitioners contended that they were given voting rights in the Rajya Sabha polls, but the Speaker suspending them would not enable them to vote on June 27.
It was later reduced to six months.
The bench further adjourned the main prayer of revoking their suspension order to July 3.
The DMDK led by actor-turned-politician Vijayakant is the main opposition party in the state assembly.
