‘Show proof of discrimination in live telecast of Oppn speeches in Assembly’

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court directed the whip of the primary Opposition party and former Minister of AIADMK, SP Velumani, to show the instances of discrimination followed in live telecasting the speeches of Opposition party members, including the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly, and adjourned the petition seeking the live telecasting of all the assembly proceedings.

The first division bench comprising Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy heard a batch of cases preferred by DMDK founder Vijaykanth, SP Velumani, and D Jagadheeswaran from Chennai, to live telecast or webcast the assembly proceedings.

Senior counsel Vijay Narayan, appeared for Velumani, submitted that the Speaker of the assembly vested power to publish the proceedings of the assembly and cited Article 212 (2) of the Constitution to support his contention. He also cited 283 (1) from TN Legislative Assembly Rules.

The Chief Justice intervened and observed that the court could not issue notice to the Speaker regarding the assembly proceedings. “There is no constitutional mandate to live telecast the assembly proceedings. If there is no mandate then there is no Constitutional violation in this case,” he observed.

Narayan contended that there was selective live telecast followed in the Assembly, and that whenever the LOP spoke, the live telecast was switched off. “Discrimination follows in the live telecasting whenever a few Opposition members speak,” he added.

Advocate General (AG) R Shunmugasundaram objected to this submission.

The bench directed the petitioner to place the instances of opposition members’ speeches which were switched off in live telecast and adjourned the matter to January 23.