Privilege breach proceedings against MLAs can continue in next Assembly: Madras HC
- The Madras High Court recently held that the breach of privilege proceedings could continue even after the dissolution of the Assembly.
Highlights:
- The breach of privilege proceedings initiated against Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) could continue even after the dissolution of the Assembly to which they had been elected and such incomplete proceedings could not be considered to have lapsed after the election of the next Assembly.
- The purpose of granting certain privileges to the House would become meaningless if the proceedings had to be considered to have lapsed along with the completion of the tenure of a particular Assembly.
- The court made the observations while allowing writ appeals filed in 2021 by the then Legislative Assembly Secretary as well as the then chairman of the Committee of Privileges against a single judge’s order in 2020
- The Division Bench held that the single judge ought not to have “assumed the role of the Speaker” and interfered at the very preliminary stage itself by quashing the show cause notices issued by the Privileges Committee to the DMK MLAs.
- It remitted the matter back to the present Speaker as well as the Committee of Privileges for continuing the proceedings and taking a final decision on merits.
Prelims Takeaway
- Parliamentary Privileges