‘Panneerselvam’s move to contest in LS poll may not lead to disqualification’
The decision of O. Panneerselvam, who has floated the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhaga Cadres Right Retrieval Organisation, to contest in Ramanathapuram Lok Sabha constituency as an independent can be challenged under the antidefection law but this does not necessarily lead to disqualification, according to former officials of Parliament and State Assembly Secretariats.
There are two grounds on which a legislator can be expelled: when he or she gives up membership of the party that sets him or her as a candidate and when he or she defies its whip.
Mr. Panneerselvam was expelled from the party through a resolution adopted at a meeting of the AIADMK’s general council in July 2022. “What grounds can be cited by the party for getting him disqualified when it had expelled him?” P.D.T. Achary, former Secretary General, Lok Sabha, wonders.
As for defying the party’s whip, that situation has not arisen in this case, he says.
However, as far as the antidefection law is concerned, an expelled member remains a member of the party so long as he or she is a member of the House (Parliament or State legislature), the former Secretary General says.
So, for academic purposes, the AIADMK can move the Speaker with a petition for disqualification.
But, then “it will be a funny situation,” Mr. Achary observes. Another former official of the Assembly Secretariat says Mr. Panneerselvam’s decision to contest as an independent will not attract the provision of the law.
A member of the Panneerselvam camp says various legal aspects were discussed among them before the group leader took his decision.
It was then pointed out that when the HC had categorically restrained him from using the AIADMK’s flag, there was no basis for the AIADMK leadership to take action against him on the use of ‘two leaves’ symbol and the official letterhead.