Comment on Madras High Court verdict deserves criminal contempt, says nominated MLA of Puducherry Assembly

CHENNAI: V Saminathan, one of the nominated BJP MLAs of the Puducherry Legislative Assembly, has moved the Madras High Court seeking to punish the Assembly Speaker and the secretary for disobeying the March 22 order of the First Bench, led by Chief Justice Indira Banerjee, which upheld the nomination of the three MLAs, Saminahtan, KG Shankar and S Selvaganapathy.

The bench had held that unlike the President or the Governor of a State, the Administrator (Lt Governor) of a Union Territory had powers to act independently irrespective of the advice given by the Council of Ministers headed by the Chief Minister.

The petitioner contended that Speaker V Vaithilingam and secretary A Vincent Rayar had wilfully violated the court order.

According to the petitioner, armed with a copy of the order, he and two other nominated MLAs attempted to participate in the Assembly proceedings on March 26. But the police superintendent denied them entry into the Assembly precincts. The DIG, who arrived at the scene, told the petitioner that he could give them protection only upto the gate and not beyond that.

He cannot persuade the Assembly guards to allow the three inside the Assembly hall, he added. When they again made the attempt, they were manhandled by the Assembly guards and the Marshal and Shankar was hospitalised.

This attitude of the Speaker and the secretary is nothing but a clear violation and wilful disobedience of and deliberate non-compliance with the order of the High Court and it amounted to civil contempt. It also attracted criminal contempt as the duo (the Speaker and the secretary) had commented on the judgment, the petitioner said.