AIADMK MLAs wear black shirts in TN Assembly to protest Speaker's refusal to let them speak

by IANS |

Chennai, April 8 (IANS) AIADMK MLAs on Tuesday appeared in black shirts in the Tamil Nadu Assembly as a mark of protest, alleging that they were not being allowed to speak during House proceedings.

Leader of the Opposition (LoP) and AIADMK General Secretary, Edappadi K. Palaniswami, accused Speaker M. Appal of denying them the opportunity to raise important issues.

This protest follows Monday’s walk out by AIADMK legislators after the Speaker reportedly declined to permit a discussion on a matter during Zero Hour.

On Monday, a few AIADMK MLAs who held placards inside the Assembly were suspended for the remainder of the day.

Speaking to the media outside the Assembly, Palaniswami said he had sought to raise an issue concerning the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC), which had approached the Supreme Court requesting the transfer of all Enforcement Directorate (ED)-related cases from the Madras High Court to another High Court.

He pointed out that the ED had recently conducted raids on liquor distilleries supplying to TASMAC and reportedly found evidence of financial irregularities to the tune of ?1,000 crore.

TASMAC subsequently filed cases against the ED, including one alleging mistreatment of its employees and another seeking to bar further action by the agency.

A two-judge Bench of the Madras High Court initially heard the matter but later the judges recused themselves.

The Chief Justice then constituted a new Bench to hear the case. However, TASMAC did not want the new Bench to proceed and made a request to the Supreme Court to transfer all related cases to a High Court in another state.

“I wanted to bring this serious matter to the attention of the State Government, but was not allowed to speak,” Palaniswami said.

He argued that this was an issue of public interest.

“When the Speaker and Leader of the House claimed that sub-judice matters cannot be discussed, we tried to explain that we were not talking about the case itself, but the reasons why TASMAC wanted to move the case out of Tamil Nadu,” he said.

He alleged that the State Government was attempting to shift the legal proceedings to another state to avoid media scrutiny.

“If the case is heard outside Tamil Nadu, it may escape public and media attention,” he said.

Palaniswami further stated, “When I was Chief Minister, I faced a case in the Madras High Court. We did not try to get it transferred elsewhere. TASMAC is a government entity, it’s not about an individual.”