State appeals against gutkha display order involving DMK MLAs

The case relating to the display of gutkha sachets on the floor of the Tamil Nadu Assembly is back to bother DMK president M K Stalin and other DMK MLAs, with the Madras High Court on Wednesday permitting Committee of Privileges, Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly to file an appeal challenging single judge’s order quashing proceedings initiated against the DMK MLAs.

A division bench comprising Justice R Subbiah and Justice Sathi Kumar Sukumara Kurup allowed the plea moved by the privileges committee of TNLA while dispensing with the production of a certified copy of a single judge’s order.

The single judge Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana had quashed the fresh breach of privilege notices issued by the Tamil Nadu Assembly privileges committee in September 2020 to 18 DMK

MLAs including the opposition leader Stalin for displaying banned gutka sachets in the Assembly in 2017.

The plea before the single judge had come after the first bench had set aside the earlier notice on technical flaw relating to bringing prohibited material into the assembly while granting liberty to the committee to recommence the proceedings afresh if it feels so.

While the State contended that the earlier notices were issued for bringing ‘prohibited’ materials inside the House, the present notice is for bringing gutka packets and displaying them in the assembly without the Speaker’s prior permission.

However, the single judge while dismissing the plea had held “when there are no clearly laid out rules on what constitutes a breach of privilege and what punishment it entails, it could not be stated that the petitioners ought to have obtained permission from the Speaker.”