THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan said on Friday that the notice in the Rajya Sabha to initiate ‘breach of privilege’ and contempt proceedings against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, for bringing a resolution against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, will not stand.
“If there is a case of breach of privilege, then notices should be served not just to the CM, but also to the Speaker, the Leader of opposition and the MLAs who supported the resolution. The Constitution does not have such a provision,” he said. BJP’s Rajya Sabha member G V L Narasimha Rao had filed the notice to Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, seeking permission to move a breach of privilege motion against the Kerala CM.
The Speaker further cited instances wherein the state had moved resolutions against Central laws — repeal of Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) in 1971 and of the Income Tax Amendment related to the co-operative sector in 2016 and 2019.
Acknowledging that the Governor was not informed about the resolution against CAA, he said there was no need to seek his sanction for all proceedings in the assembly. “The special session was convened to ratify the amendment to SC/ST quota. The rest of the proceedings was decided by the business advisory committee,” he said.