Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker and the Privileges Committee would now look afresh into the 2017 issue of breach of privilege against Chief Minister MK Stalin and 17 other DMK legislators, who were then in the Opposition in 2017, for displaying gutkha sachets in the House to highlight free flow of the contraband.

A Division Bench of Justices SM Subramaniam and C Kumarappan, which set aside a single judge order quashing the privilege notice, returned it to the speaker and the privileges panel to proceed further and decide in the matter. The Bench was passing orders on Wednesday on the appeals preferred by the Assembly Secretary and the then [privileges committee against the order of the single judge.

The case pertains to the show-cause notices issued to Stalin and 17 other DMK legislators for having sneaked into the House gutkha sachets and displaying them on July 19, 2017 to show that AIADMK government was keeping its eyes shut on the free flow of banned tobacco products across the state. Stalin was then leader of the Opposition and it had created a huge uproar in the Assembly. The matter was taken up by the privileges panel and a show cause notice followed for breach of privilege in August 28 that year.

Interestingly, the show cause notice was issued almost a month later, that too after 19 AIADMK legislators, owing allegiance to TTV DHinakaran, submitted a letter to the governor on August 22, expressing no confidence on the Chief Minister.

When Stalin and the DMK MLAs moved the high court against this, a single judge had quashed the notice. But, the assembly secretary and the then deputy speaker Pollachi N Jayaraman, who headed the privileges panel, had challenged the same.

Following the DMK returning to power in 2021, the Assembly secretary who initially made an effort to withdraw the appeal but later maintained that the appeals had become infructuous since the present privileges panel could not proceed in a matter initiated by the previous Assembly.

The Bench refused to buy the arguments of senior counsel NR Elango, appearing for the DMK legislators that with the dissolution of a House, the privilege proceedings initiated and pending before that would also lapse and die. “Breach of privilege cannot be washed away after dissolution of each and every assembly. The Assembly and the Privilege Committee must deliberate on the issues relating to breach of privilege and arrive at a conclusion in the best interests of the Assembly, representing the people,” the bench said, setting aside the Single Judge’s order.

“Any breach of privilege must be dealt with in accordance with the rules of the Tamil Nadu Assembly and the Constitution…Privileges of members should be valued and the dignity and sovereignty of the House must be protected,” the Bench observed and directed the respondent MLAs were directed to submit their response to the notices to the Privileges panel.