CM, Ministers happy over court verdicts

While the Chief Minister stopped with a crisp reaction, the other leaders were jubilant over the outcome which averts any kind of danger to the government. Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar said both the judgments —on the plea to disqualify 11 MLAs and the unveiling of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s portrait —had been favourable to them. “It is like getting fruit and milk at the same time,” he said.

Law Minister CV Shanmugam described the verdict as a blow to the DMK and said, “From the beginning, we are saying that the courts cannot pass orders to the Speaker. Our stand has been vindicated by the dismissal of the petitions. The DMK was not able to take on our party politically and moved this petition only to trouble the government. The entire case was unnecessary.”

However, the advocates of four disqualified legislators belonging to the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam said they would file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Madras High Court order. One of the AMMK lawyers said as per the anti-defection law, the Speaker should take a decision on disqualification of MLAs, who had voted against the party within 15 days of voting. If the Speaker did not take a decision, the MLAs would be automatically disqualified, they argued.