The Madras High Court numbered a batch of individual writ petitions filed by 21 DMK legislators, including the Leader of the Opposition M.K. Stalin, challenging a reference made against them by the Legislative Assembly Speaker to the Privileges Committee for bringing the banned gutkha packets to the Assembly on July 19 and the consequential show-cause notices issued to them by the chairman of the committee, V. Jayaraman, on August 28.
In their identical petitions, the legislators claimed that possession of gutkha had not been banned by the State Government. They pointed out that what had been banned was only the manufacture, storage, distribution and sale of gutkha. “Therefore, the assumption of jurisdiction by the respondents (Speaker, Assembly Secretary, Privileges Committee and its Chairman) to initiate the privilege proceedings is itself bad in law and without jurisdiction,” they claimed.
Further, contending that display of gutkha packets would not in any manner constitute a breach of privilege or amount to bringing disrepute to the House, the MLAs said that even the notices issued to them do not state as to how their act amounted to breach of privilege. They added that exhibiting a product in the House to prove its availability despite a ban was in furtherance of the right to freedom of speech and the right of the legislators to raise issues of public importance.
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The petitioners also contended that the entire proceedings initiated against them were actuated by malafides and were motivated to prevent them from participating in the Assembly proceedings when a Vote of Trust with respect to the present Government takes place. They pointed out that the notices had been issued to them only after 19 ruling party MLAs gave a letter to the Governor expressing no confidence in Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami.