Justice M. Sathyanarayanan, the Supreme Court-appointed third judge of the Madras High Court, on Thursday upheld the validity of an order passed by Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Speaker, P. Dhanapal on September 18, 2017 disqualifying 18 AIADMK MLAs, owing allegiance to side lined leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran, under the anti-defection law.
His decision solves the conundrum created following a split verdict delivered ‪on June 14‬ with the then Chief Justice Indira Banerjee (now a Supreme Court judge) upholding the Speaker’s order and her companion judge, Justice M. Sundar, setting it aside on multiple grounds including perversity, malafide and non compliance of principles of natural justice.