Breach of privilege proceedings was to save the then AIADMK government, DMK MLAs argue before Madras High Court

Senior Counsel N.R. Elango says the AIADMK government was on a sticky wicket in 2017 and wanted to prevent DMK MLAs from participating in a trust vote

The sole intention behind the initiation of breach of privilege proceedings against incumbent Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and other DMK MLAs in 2017 was to prevent them from participating in a trust vote against the then AIADMK government, which was on a sticky wicket, argued Senior Counsel N.R. Elango before the Madras High Court, on Monday.

Appearing before Justices S.M. Subramaniam and C. Kumarappan, the senior counsel said the DMK MLAs had displayed gutkha sachets in the Legislative Assembly on July 19, 2017, to highlight the availability of the banned product in every other petty shop. He said that, as per a Government Order, possession of gutkha per se was not banned. Only manufacture, sale, and storage was banned.

He also pointed out that no show cause notice for the alleged breach of privileges of the House was issued to any of the DMK MLAs immediately after the incident in July 2017. The proceedings were initiated only on August 28, 2017, after 18 AIADMK MLAs submitted a representation to the then Governor withdrawing their support to the government led by the then Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami.

Immediately, disqualification proceedings were initiated against the 18 AIADMK MLAs. These developments were followed by a letter written by Mr. Stalin, then the Leader of Opposition, requesting the Governor to impress upon Mr. Palaniswami to prove his majority on the floor of the House. This letter had prompted the initiation of the breach of privilege proceedings against DMK MLAs, Mr. Elango told the court.

The submissions were made during the hearing of a batch of 19 writ appeals filed by the Legislative Assembly Secretary as well as the chairman of the privileges committee in January 2021 challenging a single-bench judge’s order quashing the show cause notices issued to the DMK MLAs. Mr. Elango also contended that the proceedings had lost their significance with the dissolution of the 15^th Legislative Assembly in May 2021.

Referring to various Constitutional provisions as well as judicial pronouncements, the senior counsel said that there would be no point in remitting the matter back to the present (16^th) Legislative Assembly since all incomplete proceedings, but for a select few, such as breach of privilege proceedings initiated against third parties and MLAs for their conduct outside the House, would get abated with the dissolution of the Assembly.

However, senior counsel V. Raghavachari, representing AIADMK MLA Pollachi V. Jayaraman, who was the chairman of the Committee of Privileges in 2017, opposed the arguments advanced by Mr. Elango, and contended that the proceedings initiated against the DMK MLAs could also be continued by the present committee. He also said that Mr. Jayaraman, though not the chairman, continues to be a member of the committee even now.

After hearing both sides, the Judges decided to pronounce their orders on the 2021 writ appeals on Wednesday. Since one of the 19 MLAs, Ku.Ka. Selvam, had died, they ordered that the appeal against him alone would stand abated.