The High Court of Madras has postponed to 02nd November the next hearing in the case relating to the disqualification of 18 MLAs supporting jailbird Dinakaran. The postponement comes at a time when the verdict in the case was eagerly awaited.

Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker Dhanapal disqualified the above MLAs more than a month back after they petitioned the then Governor Vidyasgar Rao informing him that they had lost trust in chief-minister Edapadi K. Palaniswami’s leadership and wanted a new chief-minister to be put in place. Dinakaran challenged the disqualification in the High Court of Madras which took up the case on 20th September.

A 500-page reply was furnished to the Court on the Speaker’s behalf on 04th October after which the Court postponed the next hearing to 09th October (yesterday). Dinakaran’s counsel Abishek Singhvi and Govt. counsel Vaidyanathan put forth arguments before the Judge who then postponed the next hearing in the case to 02nd November after Deepavali.

The parties concerned have been directed to furnish additional documents by 23rd October. The postponement means the disqualification would stay till 02nd November. It also ‘extends’ the Court’s earlier stay order staying the conduct of ‘trust vote’ on the floor of the Legislative Assembly.