Justice M Sathyanarayanan heard the pleas after a bench of then Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar gave a split verdict on the matter on June 14.
18 AIADMK MLAs were disqualified under anti-defection law:
The 18 AIADMK MLAs were disqualified on September 18 last year under the anti-defection law after they met the Governor and expressed loss of confidence in Chief Minister K Palaniswami.
In view of the split verdict with Indira Banerjee upholding the disqualification and Justice Sundar setting it aside, Justice S Vimala was appointed to hear the petitions afresh.
However, the apex court named Justice Sathyanarayanan, while declining to accept a prayer of the disqualified MLAs who raised apprehension of "bias" and sought to transfer the matter to the apex court.