CHENNAI: The use of Rule 110 of the Tamil Nadu Assembly has once again gained prominence, with Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay having delivered 17 of his 18 statements under the provision since the TVK government assumed office.
The statements covered more than 35 announcements, marking a major shift towards a style of legislative communication that bypasses questioning, as the rule allows the chief minister or a minister to make announcements on the floor without any immediate debate.
Over the last several decades, legislators have used Rule 110 to announce major policy decisions, new schemes, and to make statements on matters of public importance.
Although the provision has a long history in the Tamil Nadu legislature, an excessive reliance on the rule for routine governance would bypass legislative scrutiny, warned former officials.
Former Assembly speaker M Appavu told the TNIE that Rule 110 should be used sparingly and restricted to matters of public importance, such as announcements on action taken during natural disasters, citing Tamils stranded in Nepal during the recent flash floods.
A former Assembly secretary said that announcements made under Rule 110 bypassed normal budgetary scrutiny, as a significant number of them were delivered after the House had passed the demands for grants for the departments concerned. Consequently, funding for these schemes must be added through supplementary estimates, a practice that should be stopped, said the former official.
The provision came into existence as Rule 106 between 1980 and 1984, during which a total of 35 statements were delivered under it in the Assembly. However, only four of the 35 were made by the chief minister, contrary to how the provision later came to be used, especially during the last 15 years.
In its present form, Rule 110 was introduced based on the report of the Committee on Rules, tabled in the Assembly on February 27, 1985, and the amendments were subsequently notified on March 7, 1985.
Under the provision, a total of 29 statements were delivered in the House between 1985 and 1988, but none was made by then chief minister M G Ramachandran. One of the notable announcements was the decision to abolish horse racing in the state, which was announced by then minister C Ponnaiyan on May 7, 1986.
During the DMK regime from 1989 to 1991, 29 statements were delivered under the provision, with then chief minister M Karunanidhi accounting for 15 of the 29. In the subsequent term (1991-1996), the figure more than doubled, with then chief minister J Jayalalithaa making 29 of the 59 total statements under Rule 110. The use of the provision remained high during the 1996-2001 DMK regime, with 61 statements, including 21 made by M Karunanidhi. Under the 2001-06 AIADMK government, 67 statements -- 55 by Jayalalithaa -- were made under the provision.
Again, the numbers fell to 46 during the 2006-11 DMK regime, with Karunanidhi making 18 statements under Rule 110 and deputy chief minister M K Stalin making eight.
Rule 110 witnessed an unprecedented surge in Jayalalithaa’s 2011-16 tenure, during which 185 statements were delivered during the five-year period, every one of them by then chief minister Jayalalithaa, thereby establishing the provision as a prominent vehicle for announcing government schemes and decisions in the Assembly. In 2016,
DMK leader Duraimurugan accused Jayalalithaa of misusing the provision, and the DMK and Congress cadres even staged a walkout from the House over the issue. During the 2021-26 DMK regime, the use of Rule 110 declined considerably, with Stalin delivering 36 of the 37 statements during the period.
