According to the Madras High Court ruling on Wednesday, July 31, 2024; a breach of privilege proceeding against Members of the Legislature Assembly (MLAs) can continue even after dissolution of the assembly that elected them and incomplete ones cannot be deemed lapsed once another was formed.
A view of the Madras High Court, the seat of Tamil Nadu State Legislative Assembly on Kamaraj Salai at Chennai.
Justices S.M. Subramaniam and C Kumarappan said if proceedings were treated as having been closed upon completion of tenure of a specific assembly it would render useless any privileges provided for the House. Additionally, they said if such an interpretation was given to statute law MLAs could not take their privileges seriously.
“The sovereignty and dignity of Parliament must not be undervalued because this is where people go with their grievances.” The Division Bench observed that “Issues like breach of privilege may not be cleansed every time after dissolution has taken place,”
Cases already passed through
These remarks were made when allowing writ appeals filed in 2021 by then Secretary, Legislative Assembly as well as chairman, Committee Privileges against a single judge’s 2020 quashing the show cause notices issued to incumbent Chief Minister M.K Stalin and 18 other DMK MLAs for displaying gutkha sachets in the House in July’17.
The judges stated that this case ought to have been brought before them for hearing. They therefore returned it back to Speaker who was there at that time along with Honourable Committee on Privileges so that it would continue being heard before issuing final verdicts.
It was argued by DMK MLAs during their submission on Tuesday that all proceedings initiated in respect of 15th LA which got dissolved on May’21 remained still-born during current tenure.
