Gutkha case: Govt’s plea to be heard today

The Legislative Assembly secretary had contended that the interim order of stay was an interference in the functioning of the Legislature when there was no reason for such interference. The plea added that the privileges committee had issued notice to Stalin and others only in terms of the decision of the division bench in August, which had left it open to the committee to issue fresh show cause notices if it was still of the opinion that a breach of the privileges of the House had been committed by the DMK MLAs.

Contending that the MLAs were also granted liberty to raise their objections and issuance of notice by itself would not amount to either making a decision or conclusion of proceedings, the plea claimed that there was no necessity to approach the court when there was no imminent urgency in place.

The plea also submitted that the basis for the claim of interim order was that the DMK MLAs would be prevented from attending the Assembly session that was held between September 14 and September 16, but the interim say was granted on September 24, by which time the Assembly Session itself was prorogued by the Governor. So the plea moved by them challenging the fresh notice amounted to mere to re-agitation of the issues raised in the previous batch of writ petitions, it added.