Nod not needed to book MLAs'

Thiruvananthapuram: The law department has given a legal opinion to the State government that the State Assembly could not be considered a ‘workplace’ as per the definition of the Supreme Court in the Visakha guidelines on prevention of sexual harassment at workplace and the police need not seek permission of the Speaker to prosecute MLAs who misbehaved with women legislatures.

Law Secretary B.G. Harindranath gave the legal opinion to the government on complaints MLAs Jameela Prakasam and K.K. Lathika lodged with Governor P Sathasivam against K Sivadasan Nair and Mr Dominic Presentation on the events on March 13, 2015 when then finance minister KM Mani was presenting the budget.

The law secretary told DC that his opinion was sought on two cases. “One was regarding the complaint of molestation submitted by LDF women MLAs and the other was against LDF MLAs on destruction of Assembly property,” he said. “I replied that the nod of the speaker was not needed as both were criminal offence. Mr Hareendranath replied in the negative on the query whether the Visaka guidelines on harassment in workplaces were applicable in this case as legislators are not ‘workers’ as per the guidelines. Ms Prakasam, however, said that her complaint was not against harassment in workplace. “My complaint was regarding harassment at public place,” she told DC. “The same clause invoked against a priest who misbehaved with a woman inside a place of worship can be invoked here. I don’t know why the government went for a legal opinion of the law department. It is unusual. It was for the legislative secretariat and not the government to take a decision on my complaint.”

Ms Prakasam, a JDS MLA, had lodged a complaint with Speaker N Sakthan against Mr Nair on March 13 itself. Later, she filed a complaint with the DGP against Congress MLA K Sivadasan Nair for misbehaving with her during the Assembly ruckus on March 13.