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High court shoots down TN speaker's ruling on Thamaraikani

In a significant ruling, the Madras high court Tuesday suspended the Tamil Nadu assembly speaker's warrant, which directed the central prison superintendent to detain All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam legislature party leader R Thamaraikani for a week, and ordered his immediate release.

A division bench, comprising Justices T Jayarama Choutha and K Thangaraj, issued the interim order on a habeas corpus writ from AIADMK's Rajya Sabha Member O S Manian.

Speaker P T R Palanivel Rajan had earlier told the media that Thamaraikani was free to move the court but "I am not going to recognise any authority including the judiciary. I represent the sovereignty of the House and I have to protect it."

When the petition came up for hearing, B Kumar, Thamaraikani's counsel, cited various high court and Supreme Court rulings to support the claim that a crime inside the assembly should be referred to a criminal court. The speaker, he contended, had no right to punish the alleged directly -- that too, without giving him a chance to defend himself.

The bench asked the public prosecutor to file a counter-affidavit. However, it declined to interfere with the speaker's ruling that suspended Thamaraikani from the state assembly for the rest of the budget session.

The assembly had sentenced Thamaraikani to 15 days simple imprisonment for assaulting Agriculture Minister Veerapandi S Arumugam.

A resolution to this effect, moved by Leader of the House and Education Minister K Anbazhagan, was unanimously adopted. Speaker Rajan announced the verdict after a meeting with legislature party leaders.

Giving the ruling, the speaker said since he, the leaders of all legislature parties, members, the media, visitors, officials and the watch and ward staff had all witnessed the assault, it was decided the House could punish the member.

The leaders, who endorsed the speaker's warrant, were unanimous that the AIADMK legislator should be reprimanded for his behaviour and detained for 15 days. They were also unanimous that he should be suspended for the remaining period of the current assembly, if he repeated such an act, the speaker said.

When the issue was taken up for discussion in the all-party meeting, some leaders suggested that the AIADMK member be disqualified. Certain others felt that the offence deserved life imprisonment or a 10-year term, with a fine under section 326 of the Indian Penal Code, he said.

Another view was that Thamaraikani should be sentenced for a minimum of two years, he added.

Talking to newsmen in his chamber after the House was adjourned, the speaker said though this was the first time that the assembly had sentenced a sitting member for a criminal offence, there had been precedents in other houses and Parliament.

Asked whether he would not be blamed for handing the sentence before giving the offender a hearing, the speaker said that if a contempt incident had taken place inside the House, the offender need not be heard.

The speaker clarified that he had issued two warrants on Monday, one to be executed by the city police commissioner and the other to be executed by the jail superintendent.

Earlier, narrating the sequence of events after the assault, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said that soon after Thamaraikani was escorted out of the House, he went to his room in the MLA's hostel and asked his security guard to take care of his wife, who was staying there with him. He then proceeded to the AIADMK party headquarters and then to party chief J Jayalalitha's Poes Garden residence.

While he was inside the residence, an ambulance was summoned from a private hospital around 1600 hours and bandages tied around the MLA's head and hand. In a bid to fool the police waiting outside, Thamaraikani got out of the ambulance and hopped into a car in which he drove to the private hospital, where no treatment was given to him, Karunanidhi said.

When the police went to the hospital, the doctors, colluding with the AIADMK leaders, tried to shield him. They resisted the attempts to execute the speaker's arrest warrant, the CM added.

However, the police arrested Thamaraikani and shifted him to the government General Hospital, where he was checked thoroughly by a team of doctors. After taking X-rays and an ultrasound scan, the doctors came to the conclusion that the member did not suffer any injury warranting his admission to the hospital.

The MLA was then taken to the central prison and lodged there, Karunanidhi added.

UNI

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AIADMK claims Thamaraikani was assaulted

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