Hand over video to Stalin, Madras High Court orders

Chennai: The Madras high court bench on Friday directed the assembly secretary to furnish a copy of the video recordings of the February 18 assembly proceedings to DMK working president and leader of Opposition MK Stalin and also directed him to submit his response and rejoinder, if any, in court, so that the case could be taken up for further hearing on March 24.

Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Secretary AMP Jamaludeen informed the court that there is no provision in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Rules or in Rules of Procedure of other state assemblies or in the Constitution of India for conducting the voting by secret ballot.  Stalin also sought a direction to the Assembly Speaker to conduct fresh floor test on the confidence motion moved by Edappadi K Palanisami by holding a secret ballot.     

When the case came up for hearing before a division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G. Ramesh and Justice M. Sundar, senior counsel R. Shanmughasundaram, appearing for Stalin informed the bench that, despite a specific direction, the assembly secretary had not furnished a copy of the video recordings of the February 18 proceedings of the assembly. M.K. Stalin  alleged possible tampering of the video.

Senior counsel representing the assembly secretary denied the allegation and informed the court there were 67 representatives of the media present and there is no possibility or intention of tampering.

Narrating the sequence of events where the DMK MLAs created a ruckus and disruption of proceedings, he added, “These incidents of unruly behaviour have been captured in the videography of the House and a copy of the video has been filed in the court”, he added.

Citing Rule 99 of the TN Legislative Assembly Rules, he said out of three methods of taking a vote viz voice vote or asking the members to rise in their respective places or by division. The secret voting has not been enumerated anywhere in the rules. The speaker had opted for taking a vote by division taking into account the importance of the motion. None of the members of the AIADMK party who voted for the motion has complained that they were illegally confined, he added.