Chennai, Sep 12 (UNI) Alleging that the ruling AIADMK
was trying to scuttle its MLAs from attending the Tamil
Nadu Assembly session beginning on Monday, the
Opposition DMK today moved the Madras High Court
against the fresh privilege notice issued to them for
displaying banned gutkha products in the House.
In a statement here, DMK President M K Stalin, who
is also the leader of the Opposition in the State
Assembly, said he along with his other party MLAs
have filed a writ petition in the High Court against
the fresh notice issued by Aseembly Deputy Speaker
Pollachi V Jayaraman, who heads the Privileges
Committee.
He said the First Bench of Chief Justice A P Sahi and
Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy had on August 25,
citing 'Foundational errors', set aside the privilege notices
issued against him and 17 of his party MLAs for displaying
banned gutka packets in the Assembly in July 2017.
The Court had also said that the privilege committee
is at liberty to issue fresh notices to them if it still feels
that the act amounts to breach of privilege and the
Legislators could appear before it and present their
arguments.
Following this, the Committee again met on September
seven on an issue that took place three years back
and fresh notices were issued to the DMK MLAs asking
them to reply to it on September 14, when the brief
three-day Assembly session begins.
Stating that motive behind issuance of fresh notices
was to prevent DMK MLAs from attending the session
and the scuttle them from raising the alleged inept
handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the House, the
DMK Chief said hence he and the other legislators
have filed a new writ plea in the Court challenging
the notice.
MORE UNI GV 1158