Gutka row: Madras HC quashes fresh notices issued to DMK MLAs


PTI | Chennai | Updated: 10-02-2021 14:54 IST | Created: 10-02-2021 14:54 IST
Gutka row: Madras HC quashes fresh notices issued to DMK MLAs
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The Madras High Court on Wednesdayquashed the fresh notices issued by the Tamil Nadu AssemblyPrivileges Committee to 18 DMK MLAs, including the Leader ofthe Opposition M K Stalin for displaying sachets of bannedgutka in the House in 2017.

Gutkha (chewing tobacco) has been banned in Tamil Nadusince 2013.

Senior advocate R Shanmugasundaram, who represented theopposition MLAs, said Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana quashedthe notices issued by the Assembly committee.

In August last year, a bench of then Chief Justice A PSahi and Justice Senthil Kumar Ramamoorthy, while settingaside the earlier notices issued to the DMK legislators, hadhowever, granted liberty to authorities for initiation of theprivilege proceedings afresh.

Subsequently, notices were issued for a second time inSeptember 2020, on the eve of the then Assembly session.

Shanmugasundaram told reporters it was submitted in thecourt that the MLAs' intention was to highlight theavailability of gutka despite a government ban and thereforethere was ''no basis'' for the notices.

Meanwhile, Stalin said in a Facebook post that the DMKMLAs had displayed the gutka sachets to ''point out'' at itsfree'' availability.

Referring to the Assembly committee issuing a secondnotice, he said the government ''could have shown the sameconcern in preventing the sale of gutka''.

He said that if his party is elected to power in thecoming assembly elections in the state, the sale of gutka willbe ''completely banned.'' PTI SA APRADMINISTRATOR APRADMINISTRATOR

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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