The Madras High Court on Friday ordered notices, returnable by December 12, to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Speaker and the Secretary on a writ petition filed by Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K. Palaniswami, seeking a direction to them to recognise R.B. Udhayakumar and ‘Agri’ S.S. Krishnamurthy as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Deputy Secretary of AIADMK Legislature Party respectively.
Justice Anita Sumanth passed the orders after Senior Counsel Vijay Narayan, representing the writ petitioner, said the Speaker had failed to perform even a routine function despite 20 reminders having been sent to him. He said the first intimation about the change in Deputy Leader of Opposition and Deputy Secretary was sent on July 19, 2022, and followed up with reminders. When the judge wanted to know the harm caused to the writ petitioner due to the failure to recognise the change, the Senior Counsel, assisted by advocate K. Gowtham Kumar, said the seating arrangement in the Assembly had not been changed and former Deputy Leader of Opposition O. Panneerselvam, who had now been expelled from the AIADMK, continued to sit next to the writ petitioner.
In his affidavit, Mr. Palaniswami had said that two more MLAs had been expelled from the AIADMK, along with Mr. Panneerselvam, and they too continued to sit with the party’s legislators in the Assembly due to the Speaker’s reluctance to change the seating arrangement.
The expelled members were unnecessarily interfering in discussions privy to the principal Opposition party, he added.
