MADURAI: A public interest litigation has been filed in the Madurai bench of the Madras high court seeking a direction to the Tamil Nadu assembly speaker and the assembly secretary to hold a fresh trust vote of the Edappadi K Palaniswami government by way of secret ballot.
In his PIL, T Analagan, son of former MLA R Thamaraikani, said a 'floor test' was conducted in the state's assembly on February 18 to prove the majority of the new government. However, no secret ballot system was followed.
Many MLAs had been allegedly detained at a private resort in Kuvathur near Chennai for around 10 days. Due to this, the MLAs were unable to take a decision on their own accord. They should have got opinion of people in their constituencies to know whether Palaniswami was their choice, the petitioner said.
He said even in the civic body polls, secret ballot is in vogue. Hence, it was necessary to issue a direction to speaker and assembly secretary to conduct floor test afresh, the petitioner said.
