No floor test in TN assembly till September 20

CHENNAI:Ruling on a petition filed by sacked AIADMK leader TTV Dinakaran for an early floor test, Madras high court on Thursday ordered that the floor test will not be held before September 20.

JusticeMDuraiswamystayed the vote after apprehensions were cited by Kapil Sibal, lawyer forDMKleaderMKStalin,that19 MLAscouldbedismissedtoconvert the minority government into a majority. The court ruling prevents any change in the composition of the assembly where according to the numbers, the Palanisami government has 114 MLAs as against the halfway mark of 117.

The court asked the governmentrepresentativeifactionwas taken against the 19 MLAs and toldhimtoclarifytheissuebefore Thursday evening.

Advocate general Vijay Narayan submitted to the court that action against the MLAs siding with Dinakaran was already initiated by the speaker and the court could not intervene in the powers of the legislature.

“At this stage, we cannot say whattheactionagainsttheMLAs will be. No decision has been taken yet,” Narayan said.

PVetrivel,aseniorMLAofthe Dinakaran camp, has met the speakertwiceinconnectionwith the noticeissuedto theMLAs for an explanation, the deadline for which expired on Thursday.Meanwhile,sourcessaidacting TN governor C Vidyasagar Rao was scheduled to arrive in Chennai on Monday.