The Tamil Nadu Assembly Privileges Committee gave an undertaking to the Madras High Court on Thursday that it shall not pass any orders on the privilege proceedings initiated against 21 DMK legislators , including the Leader of the Opposition M.K. Stalin, till Thursday.
Justice M. Duraiswamy recorded the undertaking given by Advocate General Vijay Narayan who sought time to argue on the maintainability of writ petitions filed by the legislators challenging the proceedings initiated against them for breach of privilege of the House.
The judge ordered that the last date of September 12 fixed by the committee for the legislators to submit their replies to the show cause notices should be extended to any date after September 14 when the court would be hearing the cases filed by the legislators.
The interim order was passed after hearing at length Senior Counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for Mr. Stalin. Mr. Sibal had claimed that the legislators' act of having displayed the banned gutkha sachets in the Assembly could not be described as act that breaches the privilege of the House.
He claimed that only manufacture, storage, transportation and sale of gutkha had been banned in the State and not possession or consumption. The court was also told that the legislators had carried the sachets to the Assembly only to highlight easy availability of the banned substance in the State.
However, in reply, the Advocate General questioned the maintainability of the writ petitions filed by the MLAs and sought time till September 14 to make his submissions. He also undertook to advise the committee not to pass any orders on the issue till then.
