A submission was made on behalf of Assembly Secretary before the Madras High Court on Monday that the Legislative Assembly was not a government office, and therefore, Government Orders (GO) related to display of portraits in government offices would have no application to those displayed within the precincts of the Assembly.
Appearing before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose, Advocate-General Vijay Narayan said the Legislative Assembly could not be construed as a government office at all, and therefore, two GOs, one issued on June 4, 2006, and the other on January 5, 2015, would have no application to it. The submission was made when Senior Counsel P. Wilson, representing DMK MLA J. Anbazhagan, requested the court to club a writ petition filed recently to remove the portrait of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa from the Assembly with another writ petition filed last year challenging the two GOs issued in 2006 and 2015.
He said that the GOs had been challenged because they do not impose any restrictions on displaying the portraits of convicted former Chief Ministers in government offices. Therefore, the court may first decide that case before going into the merits of the latest case seeking a direction to the Speaker and Assembly Secretary to remove Jayalalithaa’s portrait, he said.
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However, the A-G claimed that the two cases had no connection whatsoever since the Assembly was not a government office. Rebutting such a contention, Mr. Wilson said the Assembly was also a government building. “The legislature does not have any independent revenue. Government money is spent on maintaining the Assembly,” he pointed out.
Impressing upon the court to order removal of Jayalalithaa’s portrait from the Assembly, he said that if the court does not interfere in such an issue, then there might be a day when a legislator would want even disproportionate assets case convict V.K. Sasikala’s portrait to be displayed in the Assembly and even police stations in the State might display photos of criminals.