The Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered notices to the Speaker of Puducherry Legislative Assembly, the Government Whip and Election Commission of India on a writ petition filed against disqualification of Bahour MLA N. Dhanavelou under the anti-defection law.
Justice K. Ravichandrabaabu permitted senior counsel A.R.L. Sundaresan and advocates P. Dinesh Kumar and Niranjan Rajagopalan to accept the notices on the petition filed by the disqualified MLA and file their respective counter affidavits within four weeks.
In his affidavit, the litigant denied having indulged in any activity against the interests of the ruling Congress on whose ticket he had won the 2016 Assembly elections. He claimed to have raised only a genuine public grievance regarding lack of infrastructure in a primary healthcare centre in Bahour.
He urged the court to stay the operation of the disqualification order passed by the Speaker on Friday since otherwise the ECI would go ahead and declare a by election in the constituency.
