By IANS
Chennai : The Madras High Court Friday stayed the proceedings of the Tamil Nadu assembly’s privileges committee, which had asked opposition AIADMK party leader J. Jayalalitha to appear before it on a complaint by state minister M.K. Stalin.
The AIADMK chief Thursday moved the Madras High Court against the privileges committee’s summons.
Local Administration Minister M.K. Stalin had on Oct 18 raised a privilege issue against Jayalalitha, complaining that the AIADMK chief had alleged in the media that he was plotting to kill her before the next assembly elections.
Following Stalin’s reference, the privileges committee summoned Jayalalitha to appear before it Friday.
Appealing to the court on her behalf, her counsel sought an early hearing, considering the urgency of the issue.
After a stranger intruded into her Poes Garden house last month, Jayalalitha said there was a threat to her life as the DMK government had downgraded her security. Her statement led to charges and counter-charges between the two Dravidian parties.
Stalin said Jayalalitha’s charges against him were blatant “attempts to tarnish” his “reputation and that of the chief minister (M. Karunanidhi, his father)”, and urged the speaker to refer the matter to the privileges committee.
Jayalalitha told the court that she too was aa member of the legislative assembly, and that an expression of her “view about a person outside the purview of the house was only confined to an individual and could never be a privilege issue”.
Justice K. Suguna Friday granted interim stay on the privileges panel’s proceedings and ordered that notices be sent to the secretary of the state legislative assembly, the chairman of the Committee of Privileges, and to Stalin.
They have to tell the court why Jayalalitha’s demand for security and her comments made outside the assembly are privilege issues. They have to answer the court in four weeks’ time.