HC dismisses govt’s plea to end assembly ruckus case

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Friday dismissed a petition filed by the state government seeking permission to withdraw the case against ministers E P Jayarajan and K T Jaleel and four LDF leaders in connection with the ruckus created in the assembly by toppling chairs, snapping mikes and climbing atop tables during the budget session in 2015. Former LDF MLAs K Ajith, V Sivankutty, C K Sadasivan and K Kunjammed are the other accused.

The prosecution case was that while then finance minister late K M Mani was presenting the budget, the accused persons, who were opposition MLAs then, disrupted the budget presentation, climbed on to the speaker’s dais, damaged articles like the speaker’s chair, computer, mikes, emergency lamp etc, thereby causing a loss of `2,20,093 to the government.

The LDF government argued that withdrawal from the prosecution in this case will advance the interest of public justice by ensuring that the prestige of the legislative assembly is not lowered in the eyes of the citizens. To this, the court said it cannot accept the contention. “It is for the elected representatives to uphold the prestige of the house and face the consequences for theviolations, if any,” the court ruled.

The actions of the MLAs, if proved true, can by no stretch of imagination be deemed as acts done in furtherance of the free functioning of the house.T Asaf Ali, counsel for Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, who had impleaded in the case, said the criminal acts perpetrated by the accused persons were in no way connected with the right of the members to speak or vote in the assembly. 

The protection available to the members of the legislative under Article 105 (3) and 194 (3) of the Constitution was not a licence to commit criminal acts of destruction of public properties. Legislative freedom cannot be construed as the freedom to commit a crime like destroying public properties.R V Sreejith, counsel for Ajith Kumar T, who impleaded in the case, argued that there was no need to interfere in the order of the chief judicial magistrate court, Thiruvananthapuram.