Appeal against MK Stalin for displaying gutkha sachets in Assembly adjourned for judgment

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court adjourned the appeal against the Court order setting aside fresh show cause notices issued against DMK legislators including the Chief Minister MK Stalin, for having displayed Gutkha sachets into the Assembly in July 2017 for pronouncing judgment.

A division bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice C Kumarappan heard the appeal moved by the AIADMK government challenging the Court's order quashing the show cause notices issued by the privileges committee.

Senior counsel NR Elango representing the respondents including MK Stalin cited Article 172 of the Constitution and submitted that no action can be taken against any member of the Assembly for his overt act after the dissolution of the house.

It was submitted that the displaying of gutkha sachet had happened in the previous assembly, since that assembly period came to an end, no action can be taken in the present assembly term, said the senior counsel.

The Speaker of the Assembly has no power to refer the matter to the privileges committee as the incident happened in previous Assembly and the term lapsed, said the senior counsel.

Further, NR Elango cited Article 194 (2) of the Constitution and contended that displaying banned gutkha sachets in the House is not breach of the privileges, as every member has freedom of speech.

Senior counsel V Raghavachari representing Pollachi V Jayaraman AIADMK MLA and former chairman of privileges committee objected to the submission of the respondents and submitted that the Assembly is a continuous body, there is no dissolution of the House.

After all the submission the bench observed that it is more concerned about the jurisdiction of the Judiciary in dealing cases related to Assembly and adjourned the matter to July 31 for pronouncing judgment.

On July 19, 2017 DMK legislators including MK Stalin brought several sachets of gutkha, a banned substance, into the House to prove that it was still available in the markets.

The then Speaker P Dhanapal held that it was a breach of privilege to bring the banned substance into the Assembly and referred the matter to the Privileges Committee.

The privileges committee on August 28, 2017 issued a show cause notice to 21 DMK legislators.

However, the legislators moved the High Court challenging the show cause notice. A division bench of the High Court held that there is foundational error in the show cause notice and set aside the breach of privilege motion against the DMK MLAs.

Challenging this order the legislative assembly secretary and privileges committee moved an appeal in the High Court.