How can you withdraw appeals against CM and other DMK MLAs, Madras High Court judge asks Assembly Secretariat and Privileges Committee

Madras High Court questions withdrawal of writ appeals by Tamil Nadu Assembly Secretariat in gutkha sachets case.

The Madras High Court on Wednesday questioned the propriety behind the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Secretariat and its Privileges Committee wanting to withdraw writ appeals filed in February 2021 against a single judge’s 2020 order in favour of incumbent Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and a few other DMK MLAs in proceedings initiated against them for displaying gutkha sachets in the House in 2017.

When the appeals were listed before a Division Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and C. Kumarappan, Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) R. Muniyapparaj represented that the appellants intended to withdraw the appeals. However, the senior judge in the Bench asked how fair it would be on the part of the appellants to do so just because the DMK had assumed power in the State in May 2021.

Asking what would a common man think about the judiciary if it allows the State to file appeals during one regime and withdraw them during the next regime, the judge asked whether the State would ever withdraw any writ appeal filed against an ordinary government servant. He directed the APP to get proper instructions on the issue from the Assembly Secretariat as well as the Privileges Committee by July 2.

The gutkha sachets were displayed in the House, when the DMK was in the opposition, to highlight the sale of the banned products during the AIADMK regime. The first show cause notice issued by the Privileges Committee to Mr. Stalin, in his capacity as the then Leader of the Opposition, and the other DMK MLAs was quashed by a Division Bench of the High Court in August 2020.

However, while doing so, the Division Bench gave liberty to the Privileges Committee to initiate fresh proceedings if it was still of the view that any of the privileges of the House had been breached. On the strength of such liberty, the Committee had issued fresh notices to all the DMK MLAs in 2020. A single judge quashed the fresh show cause notices too in September 2020 leading to the present appeals preferred in 2021.