THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan invoked the “privilege of legislators” to justify his government’s decision to withdraw the criminal case against six MLAs in the 13th Kerala Legislative Assembly for unleashing violence inside the Assembly on March 13, 2015, Budget Day.
“This (the move to withdraw the case) is related to the privileges of the members. The decision has to be taken by the Legislature itself,” Mr Vijayan said while respo-nding to an adjournment motion moved by Congress legislator V.D. Satheesan in the Assembly on Wednesday against the government move to withdraw the case. “There was nothing improper in withdrawing the case with the permission of the court,” the Chief Minister said.
Mr Vijayan argued that Assembly proceedings should not be dragged into the courts. (The criminal case, filed under Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, was pending in the Thiruvan-anthapuram Magistrate Court). He gave a clear hint that his government did not want Judiciary to sit in judgement of mistakes committed by legislators. “The powers of one pillar of the democracy should not be handed over to another,” the Chief Minister said. “It can even cause friction between the legislature and judiciary,” he added.
The Opposition staged a walk out in protest. “What privileges do members enjoy if they perform a criminal deed,” Mr Satheesan asked while moving the adjournment motion.
He said that when a member of the Maharashtra Assembly once threw a paper weight at the Assembly mike operator hurting him, the legislator was arrested, put to trial and sentenced to six months rigorous imprisonment.
“Is it not a crime if a finance minister is intimidated,” asked Mr K.M. Mani, whose Budget presentation the then Opposition members wanted stalled.
Mr Vijayan’s related argument was that it was not the then Speaker, Mr N. Sakthan, who had registered a police complaint. “It was done by some official,” he said.
“It has been a long-held tradition of this House that even if it was a criminal case a complaint has to be registered only with the sanction of the Legislature,” he said, suggesting that the former legislature secretary had filed a complaint without Mr Sakthan’s knowledge. “It was not some random official who filed the complaint. It was the legislature secretary, the official in the rank of a district judge,” Mr Satheesan shot back. He said that it was strange that the accused had not even secured a bail.
“For a person to secure bail under the PDPP Act, he has to pay fine worth the value, or more, of properties destroyed,” Mr Satheesan said. (An RTI reply had stated that the total material damage to the Assembly as a result of the March 13 violence was Rs 2.20 lakh.)
Rape vs molestation in state assembly
The ruling benches, in an attempt to divert the course of discussion, latched on to the mention of “rape” made by Sathe-esan during his speech.
Mr Satheesan, words dripping with sarcasm, said that UDF members charged with “molestation, rape, and disrobing” by female members of LDF were willing to face trial.
“There is enough evidence to show that molestation, rape and disrobing have not taken place,” Satheesan said. E.S. Bijimol, K.K. Lathika and Jameela Prakasham had filed harassment complaints against certain UDF members.
Bijimol, the only women among the complainants present in the House now, objected to Satheesan’s words. “He is abusing women who have already subjected to abuse,” Bijimol said. Law minister A.K. Balan asked why Sathe-esan mentioned “rape” when no such charge had been pressed.
“Cases have been registered under section 354, which deals with outraging the modesty of women, and not under Section 376, which deals with rape. There is a huge difference between molestation and rape,” Mr Balan said. Mr Satheesan said that it was former opposition leader V.S. Achuth-anandan who had used the term “rape” first.
However, when Mr Satheesan said that the charges of women members were lies, Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan admonished him. “As long as the women members have not withdrawn their cases, you cannot say what is right and wrong,” he said.
