Madras High Court revives breach of privilege notice against CM MK Stalin, 17 MLAs for Gutkha protest

The Madras High Court on Wednesday revived the breach of privilege proceedings initiated against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and 17 other DMK MLAs for having carried and displayed packets of gutkha inside the State Legislative Assembly in 2017 as part of the protest against availability of Guthka in open market. .A Division Bench of Justices SM Subramaniam and C Kumarappan set aside a single-judge order passed in 2021 that had stayed such notices and consequent proceedings.The Division Bench referred the matter back to the Committee of Privileges and the Speaker saying that “issues such as breach of privilege cannot be washed away” only because a new government had come to power at the State..A bench of Justices SM Subramaniam and C Kumarappan set aside a single bench order passed in 2021 that had stayed such notices and consequent proceedings.The division bench led by Justice Subramaniam remitted the matter back to the Privilege Committee and the Speaker saying that “issues such as breach of privilege cannot be washed away” only because a new government had come to power at the State..The order was passed in a batch of 19 writ appeals filed by the then Legislative Assembly Secretary as well as the then chairperson of the privileges committee in January 2021 challenging the single-judge’s order to quash the show cause notices issued to the DMK MLAs..Earlier this month, Senior Counsel NR Elango, who appeared for the DMK MLAs, had told the Court that Stalin and the MLAs had displayed sachets of gutkha in the Legislative Assembly on July 19, 2017, only to highlight that the banned product was easily available for consumption even in petty shops across the State.Elango had further argued that as per a TN Government Order, possession of gutkha per se was not banned, only its manufacturing, sale and storage were banned.The Senior Counsel had also pointed out that the breach of privilege notices were politically motivated as they had not been issued to the DMK MLAs immediately after the incident in July 2017. Instead, the notices were issued and proceedings were initiated as an afterthought only on August 28, 2017..However, the Division Bench had asked whether the Court can interfere with such breach of privilege notices and proceedings.At this, the Advocate General PS Raman had suggested that the matter can be remitted to the Committee of privileges.Raman had told the court that since the 15th Legislative Assembly was dissolved by the Governor in May 2021, all proceedings initiated during its tenure stood lapsed unless they had reached finality. In the present case however, since the single-judge had quashed the show cause notices issued by the Privileges Committee to the MLAs, the proceedings had not attained finality.Subsequently, the Court today passed the order reinstating the proceedings.