Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker rightly dropped disqualification proceedings against 21 AIADMK MLAs: Madras High Court
The Madras High Court has upheld the decision of the Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker to drop disqualification proceedings against 21 AIADMK rebel MLAs. The court dismissed a PIL challenging the move, citing that the petitioner lacked the legal standing to interfere in party affairs.
Why it matters
The ruling clarifies the limits of judicial intervention in internal legislative and political party disciplinary processes.
The Madras High Court has refused to issue a direction to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Speaker and Assembly Secretary to initiate disqualification proceedings against all 25 AIADMK rebel MLAs who had voted in favour of the vote of confidence moved by Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay on May 13, 2026.
The First Division Bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan also refused to quash a decision taken by Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar to drop the disqualification proceedings against 21 out of the 25 MLAs following a request made by AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
The Bench dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by advocate P.V. Selvakumar of Tiruvallur district and concurred with Advocate General Vijay Narayan that the petitioner, being a third party, had no locus standi whatsoever to interfere with the internal affairs of the AIADMK.
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