Did Karunaas rebel against government? Legal experts divided

Independent MLA

Karunaas

has put the AIADMK government in a spot by seeking a resolution against assembly speaker P Dhanapal. Constitutional experts say Karunaas, elected on the AIADMK’s ‘two leaves’ symbol, has technically revolted against the AIADMK government. His action is tantamount to quitting the party and he is open to disqualification, says Subash Kashyap, constitutional expert.

“Karunaas, as an MLA, has every right to say he does not have confidence in the speaker and seek permission to move a motion against him. As he has been elected on the AIADMK symbol, he is part of the AIADMK group and the speaker, based on the party’s chief whip, can take action against the MLA,” said Kashyap.

Under the Anti-Defection Law, a legislator can be disqualified if he violates a party whip or is said to be leaving the party. “In this case, the MLA had indulged in a conduct which is tantamount to leaving the party and, therefore, the speaker can take action,” said Kashyap.

But Madras high court senior lawyer K A Vijayan says since nothing has happened within the assembly, the speaker cannot take action immediately against Karunaas. “If the speaker wants to take action, the disciplinary committee must be moved and, based on the committee recommendation, the speaker may act. We will have to wait and see what the speaker does,” said Vijayan.

The DMK is likely to support the motion against the speaker if Karunaas’ notice is accepted. “It all depends on the judgment of the third judge on disqualifying 18 MLAs. If the judge states what the speaker has done is wrong, then he cannot take action against Karunaas and the government will have to face the no-confidence motion,” said Triplicane DMK MLA J Anbazhagan, who called on Karunaas in the hospital. He said they would take a decision when the assembly is convened.

Karunaas needs 33 more MLAs to propose the motion against the speaker as per the assembly rules and, if accepted, it will be the third time that a Tamil Nadu speaker will be facing a motion in the assembly. Dhanapal will also go down in history as the speaker who faced two no-confidence motions against him if the motion is moved by Karunaas.

In March last year, the DMK moved a noconfidence motion against the speaker and it was defeated with 97 MLAs voting in favour of the motion and 122 voting against it. It was in 1972 that a motion was moved for the first time against an assembly speaker, K A Mathiazhagan, by the DMK.