Chennai, Aug 17 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Speaker J C D Prabhakar on Monday informed the Madras High Court that the acceptance of resignation letters tendered by three former AIADMK legislators was valid and suffers from no legal/constitutional infirmities as sought to be canvassed by the opposition party's whip Agri S S Krishnamurthy.
The first bench comprising Chief Justice S A Dharmadhikari and G Arul Murugan before whom the Speaker filed his affidavit, posted to September 1, further hearing of the case.
In his petition, Krishnamurthy challenged the acceptance of resignation of the three MLAs S Jayakumar, Maragatham Kumaravel and P Sathyabama by the Speaker.
In his affidavit, Prabhakar submitted that when the three persons had handed over their resignation letters to him, which were all handwritten by them, their conduct and demeanour did not give him any impression that they were being coerced or forced in any manner to tender their resignation.
Moreover, there was no other material/circumstances that indicated to him that their resignation was not voluntary or genuine. Therefore, he made a limited inquiry to the extent of asking each of them as to whether their decision to resign was voluntary or not, he added.
He further submitted that each of them clarified that it was voluntary, and to his mind, it appeared that they were stating the truth and that they were not under any pressure from any of the persons present.
{{/usCountry}}He further submitted that each of them clarified that it was voluntary, and to his mind, it appeared that they were stating the truth and that they were not under any pressure from any of the persons present.
{{/usCountry}}In these circumstances, there was no further inquiry necessary in his view. Therefore, after being duly satisfied of the voluntary and genuine nature of the resignations, he had decided to accept the resignations tendered by them. In this entire sequence of events, he was guided by the mandate stipulated under proviso to Article 190 of the Constitution and Rule 22 of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Rules.
The inquiry which was conducted by him at the time when the resignations were tendered was in consonance with the permissible scope of inquiry envisaged under proviso to Article 190 and Rule 22 of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Rules. Therefore, the acceptance of resignation letters was valid and suffers from no legal/constitutional infirmities as sought to be canvassed by the petitioner, he added.
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