Justice M Sathyanarayanan of the Madras High Court on Friday (August 31) reserved judgment in the case relating to the disqualification of 18 AIADMK MLAs who defied the party whip.

The Supreme Court had said that Justice M Sathyanarayanan of the Madras High Court would hear and decide the plea of 18 disqualified AIADMK MLA after that in June a division bench gave a split verdict. The apex court had then appointed Sathyanarayana to break the tie and settle the matter.

They were disqualified under 1986 Tamil Nadu Assembly Members party defection law. Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal had on September 18 last year disqualified the 18 MLAs owing allegiance to sidelined party leader T T V Dhinakaran on the grounds that they had tried to pull down the AIADMK government in the state. After the disqualification, the MLAs had challenged the Dhanapal’s order.

—India Legal Bureau