High Court upholds order disqualifying 18 rebel AIADMK MLAs
Chennai, Oct 25 : The Madras High Court today upheld the June 14 order of the then Chief Justice disqualifying 18 rebel AIADMK MLAs, in a huge relief to the K Palaniswami government.
Justice M Sathyanarayanan heard the pleas of the rival parties after a bench of then Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar gave a split verdict on June 14.
The 18 disqualified MLAs are loyal to the sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran, who has now formed his own party --the AMMK.
Justice Sathyanarayanan said there was no infirmity in the order of the Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal, which was upheld by Banerjee.
"All the material that were available at the time of passing of the order by the Speaker alone have been taken into consideration and this court cannot go into the subsequent events," he observed while upholding their disqualification.
The 18 AIADMK MLAs were disqualified on September 18 last year under the anti-defection law after they met the governor and expressed loss of confidence in Chief Minister Palaniswami.
Following the split verdict, with Banerjee upholding the disqualification and Sundar setting it aside, Justice S Vimala was appointed to hear the petitions afresh.
However, the Supreme Court named Justice Sathyanarayanan to hear the matter, while declining to accept a prayer of the disqualified MLAs who raised apprehension of "bias". They had sought the matter to be transferred to the apex court.
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RSS needs to increase activism on social media as work expands: Bhagwat
Nagpur (PTI): Social media is widely used, and there is a need for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to increase “activism” on such platforms for a good cause, said RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday.
He was speaking at the centenary event of the Marathi newspaper Tarun Bharat in Nagpur.
The RSS chief said that while social media is used extensively by people, it should be utilised for a good cause.
“Memes and reels are already in circulation. Some content is being disseminated through the RSS’ communication department, and our volunteers are also using social media. This will gain acceptance. I won’t call it an expectation, but we will have to increase our activism there,” he said.
Bringing people together and transforming society were both necessary and mutually reinforcing, he said.
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When a committed volunteer is developed, they take up constructive work, which spreads through society and contributes to desired change, said the RSS chief.
Bhagwat said the RSS’s work was expanding and required decentralisation.
As public expectations had grown, there was increasing demand for volunteers across sectors, making smaller units necessary for better efficiency, according to the RSS chief.
He said that the organisation’s expanding work also required periodic interaction with the government and administration, for which a separate coordination mechanism was being created.
A “pradesh-level” unit was being set up to handle such coordination and address hurdles, he added.
