The Supreme Court has ordered an interim stay on the disqualification notice issued to three AIADMK MLAs by Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal.

The order was issued on Monday on a petition filed by two of the three MLAs to whom the Speaker had served notices. AIADMK MLAs E Rathinasabapathy (Aranthangi) and VT Kalaiselvan (Virudhachalam) had approached the apex court on Friday, seeking an order prohibiting the Speaker from disqualifying them. The Supreme Court, while ordering an interim stay, served notice to the Speaker to respond to the petition filed by the MLAs.

The Speaker had issued notices to three AIADMK MLAs – E Rathinasabapathy, VT Kalaiselvan and A Prabhu (Kallakurichi) for their alleged support to AMMK MLA TTV Dhinakaran. In his notice, the Speaker had attached evidence to support his claim and had given a week’s time to the MLAs to respond. The notices were served on the MLAs on the recommendation of the Chief Government Whip Rajendran and Tamil Nadu’s Law Minister C Ve Shanmugam.

The decision to serve these notices came in the middle of bye-elections to 22 assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu. 18 out of the 22 seats fell vacant after the Speaker disqualified the MLAs in 2017, a decision which was upheld by the Madras High Court in 2018. The remaining four constituencies – Thiruvarur, Sulur, Thirupparankundram and Hosur – became vacant due to the death or conviction of the incumbent MLAs. While 18 constituencies polled on April 18, the remaining four constituencies will be going to polls on May 19.

Last week, the DMK had submitted a resolution to the Assembly Secretary on behalf of the Leader of the Opposition MK Stalin seeking the removal of Dhanapal as the Speaker. The resolution stated that the Speaker’s decision to serve the notice amounted to ‘altering the majority’ in the house. The party had also filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Speaker’s move.