PIL seeking floor test: Court to decide on maintainability

The first bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar on hearing the counsel for the petitioner that democracy has ceased to prevail in Tamil Nadu as the government has lost its majority and Advocate General Vijay Narayan putting up a strong defence against it, posted the case to October 3 on the issue of maintainability.

Advocate M Radhakrishnan, appearing on behalf of the petitioner Pugazhenthi contended that the moment as many as 19 MLAs out of the 122 MLAs had given a letter to the Governor expressing their lack of confidence in the Chief Minister, the Governor should have called for a floor test. He said despite the numbers clearly revealing that the party in power no longer held the majority, the Governor has set aside the demand for a floor test claiming that it was an intra-party affair and that the 19 MLAs were only against the Chief Minister and not against the government. 

Citing various Supreme Court orders in his favour, he said it’s not an individual in power but a political party and that the moment certain MLAs withdrew the trust they had reposed on the Chief Minister it tantamounted to losing trust in the government. He also cited the letter written by Opposition Leader MK Stailn to the Governor seeking a floor test as democracy was in peril owing to this.

Advocate General Vijay Narayan contended that there exists no constitutional failure and hence can’t insist on the Governor to use his discretionary powers. He said the plea does not comply to the parameters of a PIL and that nothing stopped the leader of opposition to approach the court. He said the 19 MLAs have only expressed their discontent over the Chief Minister and not against the government. It is also not the petitioner’s case that there is a constitutional breakdown, he added.