The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the Madras High Court order which had restrained TVK MLA R Sreenivasa Sethupathi from participating in the floor test in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.
"This is atrocious to say the least. The high court says the remedy is election petition but still entertains the Article 226 petition," a bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi observed while hearing the plea.
Article 226 of the Constitution deals with power of high courts to issue certain writs.
The bench also stayed the proceeding pending before the high court in the matter.
Sethupathi had won the No.185 Tiruppattur assembly constituency in Sivagangai district by a margin of a single vote against Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader and former minister K R Periakaruppan.
The apex court granted two weeks time to Periakaruppan and other respondents to file their counter affidavit on Sethupathi's plea.
Periakaruppan subsequently approached the Madras High Court alleging irregularities in the counting process, including the alleged rejection of a postal ballot that was mistakenly sent to another constituency.
In an interim order, the high court restrained Sethupathi from voting or otherwise participating in any floor test, confidence motion, no-confidence motion, trust vote or any proceeding where the numerical strength of the House is tested, pending further orders.
The order has significant implications for the ruling TVK-led alliance in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly.
The alliance currently commands the support of 120 MLAs.
With Sethupathi barred from participating in voting proceedings, its effective strength in the House would be reduced to 119, leaving it with a slender majority of one member.
The C Joseph Vijay-led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) government on Wednesday won the vote of confidence.