Speaker misinterpreting rules of  procedure to protect staff: Opposition

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Coming down heavily on Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan for allegedly misinterpreting Rule 165 of the ‘Rules of Procedure’, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala said on Thursday that the Speaker was trying to sabotage the law to save his own face. 

The criticism comes a day after Legislative Assembly Secretary S V Unnikrishnan Nair shot off a letter to the Customs, citing Rule 165 to state that the Speaker’s permission had to be sought if a legislative assembly employee was to be served with a legal process. As per the Rule 165 of the ‘Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Assembly’, a legal process, civil or criminal, cannot be served within the precincts of the assembly without obtaining the Speaker’s permission. 

The letter had led to a subsequent delay in the Customs’ questioning of K Ayyappan, Speaker’s assistant private secretary, in a case relating to the smuggling of US dollars by the former staff of the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram.

Chennithala alleged that the Speaker and his office were trying to block the investigation in the dollar smuggling case. “This is an inglorious and grave issue. The Speaker wants the privileges bestowed upon the legislators by the Constitution to be made available to his staff as well. This is against the law,” he said. 

“Back in 1970, when government officials had gone on strike, a number of staff was arrested from the Legislative Assembly complex. The then Speaker had ruled that their arrest did not come under the question of assembly privilege, which is still valid. It was under Rule 164 that the arrest was made then. Rule 165 is just a continuation of that,” the Opposition leader said.

Rule meant for legislators,  not staff: K C Joseph

Citing the contents of Unnikrishnan Nair’s letter to the Customs, Congress MLA K C Joseph accused the legislative secretary of misinterpreting the rule on purpose to protest the Speaker’s staff. “Chapter 19 of the rule book deals with the question of privilege for legislators and not for the personal staff of the Speaker,” he said. The MLA demanded to know how the rule could be misquoted to protect the staff and bypass due process. “It’s surprising that the assembly secretary is generously extending the privileges of elected MLAs to personal staff,” Joseph said.