Chennai: The Privileges Committee of Assembly which met on Monday decided to issue notice to DMK members who displayed gutka sachets in the Assembly on July 19.
DMK MLA S.Reghupathy, who attended the meeting, said the Opposition members argued that action could not be taken against the legislators without giving notice to them as per section 223 of Assembly rules.
Accepting the argument, the chairman of the Privileges Committee 'Pollachi' V. Jayaraman stated that notices would be issued to members found with bringing gutka sachets to the Assembly.
When asked about the number of MLAs to whom the notices would be served, Reghupathy said they were not aware of the numbers since the committee chairman did not indicate it. However, it is said notices could be issued to 10 to 21 DMK legislators.
Reghupathy said no action could be taken against the DMK members and warned that the party would approach the court if any such action was taken in an illegal manner.
Earlier, video clippings of the MLAs who showed the gutka sachets were shown to the members who attended the meeting to identify the legislators charged with violating the privileges of the House. Leader of Opposition M.K. Stalin did not attend the committee meeting since he was not invited as he was one of the members who displayed the gutka sachets. Besides, three AIADMK (Amma) MLAs-T.A. Elumalai, R. Thangathurai and S.T.K. Jakkaiyan belonging to the faction of AIADMK (Amma) deputy general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran were not invited.
Besides, Jayaraman, minister K.A. Sengottaiyan, Sengottaiyan, M.Geetha. S.S.Saravanan, M.Paremeswari. Marimuthu and J.K.N, Ramajayalingam belonging to the Palaniswami faction attended the meeting. From the DMK, K.S. Ravichandran, K. Sundar KR. Periakaruppan and U. Mathivanan, besides Congress member S. Vijayadharani attended the meeting.
On July 19, the DMK MLAs including Stalin displayed gutka sachets and charged that the banned products were easily available in shops in the city and suburbs.
CM objected to the DMK's members' action of bringing the banned products into the Assembly. Following the Chief Minister's intervention, Speaker P. Dhanapal referred the issue to the Privileges Committee.
