CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu government on Monday moved a petition at the Madras High Court appealing against the single judge order staying the operation of fresh notices issued by the Assembly Privileges Committee against DMK chief MK Stalin and 17 MLAs for bringing gutka packets inside the House in 2017.
Only on September 24, Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana passed the interim order on the batch of pleas moved by the MLAs challenging the notices dated September 7. Claiming that the order is erroneous, contrary to established law and has been passed based on the complete misunderstanding of facts and is therefore liable to be set aside, the Privileges Committee has moved the present appeal.
“The single judge has erred in admitting the petitions when the division bench confined its decision only to the question of breach of privilege as to whether the committee can take action for the alleged violation of the notification dated May 23, 2017, issued under the Food Safety and Standards Act,” the committee said.
It was in this context that the division bench held that the committee cannot take action for violation of the said notification, submitted the petition. The bench categorically observed that carrying gutkha sachets into the Assembly may or may not amount to a breach of privilege, it added.