Supreme Court Refuses To Entertain Plea Seeking CBI Probe Against AIADMK MLAs Who Resigned To Join CM Vijay-Led TVK
The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a writ petition against 5 MLAs of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) who resigned and joined Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay-led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) following the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.
A bench of CJI Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana passed the order in a writ petition filed by one M Srinivasan.
Justice Bagchi orally observed that the issue of an MLA resigning to join another party was something political parties could look into and there is "nothing criminal" about it. When the petitioner's counsel submitted that there's already an FIR registered, the judge replied, "then let the FIR be investigated. Law will take its own course".
Briefly put, the petition sought directions to CBI to register an FIR against former AIADMK MLAs N Anand @ Bussy N Anand, K Maragatham Kumaravel, S Jayakumar, P Sathyabama and E Subaya alias Esakki Subaya for allegedly indulging in horse trading to prove majority in the TN Assembly.
The petitioner further prayed that the Court, in exercise of its power under Article 142, frame specific rules with stringent conditions with regard to candidates disqualified by the Assembly Speaker or those who have resigned from the Assembly without any justifiable reason for preventing horse trading after elections. These rules were sought as an interim measure, until the Parliament lays down proper rules in this regard.
The petitioner also sought directions for the Union, ECI and State of Tamil Nadu to recover the expenditure incurred for the Assembly elections from the MLAs who resigned from the respective legislative constituencies. He also prayed for a direction that 4 of the respondent-MLAs deposit entire costs for the upcoming bye-elections in their respective constituencies, caused due to their resignation from the post of MLA.
Another prayer sought to restrain 4 of the respondent-MLAs from contesting the same constituencies in the upcoming bye-elections either independently or with the support of any political party until the Court framed appropriate rules.
The petition was drawn by Advocate M Dhandapani and filed through AoR Achintya Tiwari.