SC appoints third judge to hear disqualification case of 18 AIADMK MLAs

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to transfer the case of the disqualification of 18 AIADMK MLAs from the Madras High Court to the apex court.

A vacation bench comprising justices Arun Mishra and SK Kaul passed the order on a plea by some of these disqualified MLAs who were seeking transfer of their petition challenging their disqualification by the Tamil Nadu Assembly speaker from the Madras High Court to the apex court.

The SC has instead appointed Justice M Satyanarayana as the third judge who will hear the matter afresh. On June 14, a two-member bench of the Madras High Court had delivered a split verdict on the disqualification case.

Following this, Justice S Vimla was scheduled to hear the matter afresh as the third judge. However, the petitioners made comments against Justice Vimla and expressed lack of confidence on her.

Hearing the petition, the apex court has now appointed Justice M Satyanarayana to hear the matter as the third case. It has also asked the petitioners to withdraw the comments made by them against Justice Vimla.

The fate of the 18 MLAs now rests with the verdict that will be delivered by Justice Satyanarayana. The case will be decided depending on which of the two judges Justice Satyanarayana sides with in his verdict.

Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal had on September 18 last year disqualified the 18 MLAs owing allegiance to side-lined party leader T T V Dhinakaran on the grounds that they had tried to pull down the AIADMK government in the state.