Supreme Court unseats Jayalalithaa

Dark horse and political green horn O. Paneerselvam was last night sworn in as chief minister of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, hours after All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) supremo Jayaram Jayalalithaa was unseated by the Supreme Court, which held that her appointment was "a clear infringement of the Consti-tution".

The 52-year-old agriculturist Paneerselvam, a first-time Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Periyakulam in southern Tamil Nadu, was sworn in by Governor C. Rangarajan hours after the apex court gave a norm-setting verdict that a person convicted of a criminal offence and sentenced to more than two years should be barred from such an office.

Along with him all the 23 ministers in the Jayalalithaa government were administered the oath of office and secrecy at at a simple ceremony at the Raj Bhavan.

Soon after, the new chief minister went up to Jayalalithaa and touched her feet.

Paneerselvam belongs to the dominant backward Thevar community to which Jayalalithaa's close aide Sasikala Natarajan also belongs. He is said to be close to party MP from Periyakulam T.T.V. Dinakaran, a nephew of Sasikala.

The 54-year-old former actress-turned-politician Jayalalithaa met Governor Rangarajan to discuss formation of the new ministry shortly after a five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court, in a unanimous verdict, observed: "We take the view that the appointment of a person to the office of chief minister who is not qualified to hold it should be struck down at the earliest."

Handing her a stinging rebuke, the bench headed by Justice S.P. Bharucha said: "Constitution will prevail over people's will. People's will will prevail only if it is in accordance with the Constitution."

In an reference to the theory that the governor had no discretion to exercise when the majority party elected its leader, the court said the governor could decline to swear such a person as the CM if he was disqualified to become a member of the house.

Dismissing the arguments of Jayalalithaa's counsel that the governor had the discretion even to appoint a non-citizen, under-age, a lunatic or an undischarged insolvent as chief minister and that the remedial action lay with the house alone, the court said to accept this submission is "to invite disaster".

Former governor Fathima Beevi reacted to the verdict saying she had appointed Jayalalithaa as CM on the understanding of the law as it stood then and now that the court had set the law everybody is bound by it.

Earlier, the AIADMK legislature party met yesterday evening and elected Paneerselvam as successor to Jayalalithaa who remained unfazed claiming she will stage a comeback as chief minister after fighting her legal cases.

The choice of Paneerselvam, Revenue Minister in Jayalalithaa's cabinet, came as a total surprise as he turned out to be a dark horse defying all speculation that centred over various names including Speaker Kalimuthu and senior ministers in cabinet like Thambidurai and Ponniyan.

Earlier, Jayalalithaa told reporters here: "I will face the cases in the court of law and prove my innocence...I will get elected to the assembly and head the government once again."

"The Supreme Court has only held my appointment as invalid. The duly elected AIADMK government remains," she maintained.

Jayalalithaa appealed to party cadres and the general public to maintain peace and not indulge in violence as that would be used as a ruse by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the centre to impose president's rule in the state citing breakdown of law and order in the state.

At the party headquarters, a distraught AIADMK worker made a vain attempt to immolate herself. The woman, who doused herself with kerosene, was removed by other party cadres.

Fort St George, which houses the government secretariat, wore a deserted look yesterday morning with none of the ministers turning up. Visitors were conspicuous by their absence.

It is for the first time in the history of the Supreme Court that appointment of a chief minister has been quashed.

Arch rival and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president Muthuvel Karunanidhi was among the first to hail the decision, saying "justice has prevailed".

"Law has discharged its duty," he said.