No interim stay for DMK in petition against trust vote in Assembly

Chennai: The Madras High Court on February 22 declined to grant any interim relief to the DMK, with respect to its petition questioning the manner in which the vote of confidence was won by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami in the Assembly, asked Leader of the Opposition and DMK party working president M.K. Stalin to produce video recordings to prove his charge that he was assaulted.

When the court took up the PIL on the matter, the First Bench of Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G. Ramesh and Justice R. Mahadevan questioned the need for DMK to declare the vote as null and void, when the issue was only between Chief Minister EPS and former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam. It wondered how he was affected by the issue.

Counsel Shanmugasundaram said the Leader of the Opposition was stopped near the War Memorial and had to proceed on foot to the Assembly, and that all the DMK members were illegally evicted from the Assembly House when they demanded a secret ballot.

When the the Bench asked if there was video evidence about the assault against Stalin, Shanmugasundaram said that only a particular private channel was allowed to shoot and record the proceedings.

The court  asked the petitioners to collect and submit any videos for the perusal of the court. Further proceedings were adjourned Feb 27 hearing.