The Madras High Court on Friday asked the Tamil Nadu government to hand over video footage of the chaos that took place during the trust vote in the Assembly on February 18 to Opposition leader MK Stalin. The court will take up the matter again on March 24.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Working President Stalin had challenged Chief Minister Edappadi Palanisami’s win, alleging that the floor test was conducted undemocratically. He had moved the high court on February 20. Although the court had earlier asked the Assembly secretary to hand over the footage, Stalin’s counsel R Shanmugasundaram informed the bench on Friday that they had not received the copy of the video recording, reported The Times of India.

On February 18, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanswami had proved his majority in a floor test that was marred by chaos. The DMK members had been expelled and the Congress had walked out, resulting in a clear win for Palaniswami. Palaniswami had won the vote 122-11.

The DMK’s counsels argued that the trust vote should be deemed illegal because it had been introduced twice – once in the morning and again after two adjournments of the House, reported NDTV. The DMK had also alleged that its legislators were injured by security personnel while Stalin had pointed out an unusually large deployment of police personnel at the Assembly that day. The party members were thrown out because they had protested when Speaker P Dhanapal rejected their demands for a secret ballot.

Palaniswami had been appointed All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief VK Sasikala’s successor after she was convicted in an illegal assets case. The political crisis in the state had started when former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam had revolted against Sasikala, who was set to become chief minister before she was convicted. Her rise to chief minister had also been debated, though.