Days after H Vasanthakumar of the Indian National Congress stormed to power as the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha MP defeating rival and BJP’s former Union Minister of State Pon Radhakrishnan, reports began doing the rounds that the Tamil Nadu Speaker cannot accept his resignation as an MLA. Businessman-politician H Vasanthakumar, who won by a massive margin of 2.59 lakh votes, is also the MLA for the Nanguneri Assembly constituency in the state. In order to take up his role as Member of Parliament, he would have to resign as MLA as he cannot hold both posts. However, with the DMK petitioning to move a no-confidence motion against the Speaker, doubts were raised on whether the Speaker had the power to accept MP-elect Vasanthakumar’s resignation.
Speaking to TNM, the annoyed MLA addressed the affair, stating that this was ill-informed talk. “Those who have no knowledge of the law and legalities will only talk like this. There is no hurdle for my resignation.” he said. The MP-elect said that he intends to resign on Wednesday at 11 am.
On April 26, over a week after Tamil Nadu went to polls, Tamil Nadu Law Minister C Ve Shanmugam and AIADMK Whip S Rajendran had met with Speaker P Dhanapal, seeking to disqualify three AIADMK MLAs: Aranthangi MLA Rathinasabapathy, Virudhachalam MLA Kalaiselvan and Kallakurichi MLA Prabhu. The Whip had said that he had gathered documentary evidence of the ‘anti-party’ activities that the MLAs had indulged in. The MLAs have been vocal in their support of AMMK chief and RK Nagar MLA TTV Dhinakaran. Following the complaint, the Speaker sought an explanation from the three ruling party MLAs over their alleged ‘anti-party’ activities.
In response to the development in the rival camp, the main opposition party, the DMK, petitioned the Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Assembly, seeking to bring a motion of no-confidence against Speaker P Dhanapal. It was thought that if the three MLAs are disqualified, it would help the ruling AIADMK in the event of a trust vote in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, as it further reduces the strength of the House. However, the results of the 22-seat bye-polls on Thursday confirmed that the AIADMK survived the threat to government, winning 9 seats. This takes the parties number in the Assembly to 123 MLAs, comfortably past the magic mark of 118.
“There are two points to be noted here: firstly, Supreme Court Justice Khekar’s 2016 verdict on former Arunachal Pradesh Speaker Nabam Rebia says that the Speaker, under threat of disqualification himself, cannot decide on the disqualification of members of the House. It has absolutely no relation to accepting resignations. Secondly, as far as the MP is concerned, it is a constitutional mandate, entrusted by the Election Commission. They have Supreme Court sanction to conduct elections every five years and return MPs to the Lok Sabha. So, regardless of the Speaker’s mandate, the resignation has to be tendered if the MP-elect wishes to become a member of the Lok Sabha,” says one senior constitutional lawyer who did not wish to be named.
On Tuesday, Speaker Dhanapal administered the oath of office to the 13 DMK MLAs who won the bye-polls last week. “The DMK was the one who moved against the Speaker but he has taken the necessary action today, swearing in the members. So technically there is no hold on him performing his other duties as Speaker, including accepting a resignation,” the lawyer adds. Meanwhile, the MLA turning MP also means that bye-polls would be necessitated for the Nanguneri Assembly constituency, normally within a period of six months.
Source: The News Minute