Press release
Abolition of TN Legislative Council
Prof P. Chandra Sekharan the noted Forensic Scientist in a press release had said “Abolition of TN Legislative Council is tyranny of Political rulers and it has to be dubbed as tyranny of the majority from time to time”.
Political rulers should not make use of their power on their own wishes and make every kind of decision which could harm society. The first legislature of any sort in India was the Madras Legislative Council which was set up in 1861. After India became independent in 1947 the Legislative Council continued to be the upper chamber of the legislature of the Madras State
The legislative council was abolished in 1986 by the then Chief Minister, MGR. He had nominated a Tamil film actress, "Vennira Aaadai" Nirmala (aka A. B. Shanthi) to the Council. But a lawyer named S. K. Sundaram, filed a public interest writ petition in the Madras High Court challenging Nirmala's nomination to the Council citing that Nirmala had earlier declared insolvency and according to the Constitution, an insolvent person cannot serve as a member of parliament or state legislature.
But to obviate this problem MGR loaned Nirmala a sum of Rupees 4, 65,000 from ADMK's party funds to pay off her creditors, so that her insolvency declaration could be annulled.. This annulment made Nirmala's nomination valid and the writ petition against it was dismissed. However, Nirmala withdrew her nomination to the council. The Governor of Tamil Nadu, S L Khurana asked MGR to explain how Nirmala's nomination was proposed without proper vetting. Offended by this incident, MGR abolished the council. I know for certain that MGR felt bad about this later.
The irony of fact is that MGR created a record by making his marathon speech in the Council for three days while speaking on Governor Sadiq Ali’s address. The Council was used twice to appoint non members of the legislatures as Chief Ministers. During 1967 C. N. Annadurai got himself elected to the Council when he became the chief minister. The precedence was in 1952, when C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) was nominated by Governor Sri Prakasa to the Council so that Rajaji could become chief minister then.
Let not Chief Minister Jayalalitha follow the policy of “anything you (Karunanidhi) do I will undo”. Legislative Council in the past nurtured great men like C.N. Annadurai, Sir R.K. Shanmugham Chettiar, former President of India R.Venkatraman Ruthnaswamy, Rajaji, Dr. P.V.Cherian. Dr. Natesan, Sir A Ramasamy Mudaliar, Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiar, Sir P.T. Rajan, Dr U Rama Rao and many others. Let the present government prevent the elite from entering the Council.
