Speaker decision final, asserts Jayalalithaa

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The Assembly Speaker has the discretion to decide on expunging remarks by members in the House and his decision is final, chief minister J. Jayalalithaa said and advised members to read the Assembly rules and desist from criticising the Speaker for expunging the remarks.

Taking strong exception to Opposition party members for charging the Speaker with expunging some of their utterances in the House, Ms Jayalalithaa said on Tuesday that the Speaker had a right to decide on what to expunge. “CPI (M) member A. Soundararajan’s insistence indicates that he is criticising the Speaker for his actions,” she said.

“He diplomatically claims he referred to the House and not to the Speaker. Who has right to expunge the remarks in the House?” she asked.

Stating that the members should be aware of the Assembly rules, she said unlike the situation during the previous DMK regime, the present Speaker accorded sufficient time to members to react to suo motu announcements made by the chief minister.

Surprisingly, deputy leader of the opposition DMDK Panruti S. Ramachandran lauded Mr Jayakumar for conducting the proceedings in the House in an impartial manner a nd said the Speaker could have averted frequent interventions by ministers.

“Daily either ministers or members cast aspersions on our leader and you don’t give us time to respond,” Mr. Ramachandran told the Speaker.

“The ministers have the joint responsibility to reply to charges as and when they are levelled by the legislators…your party whip was always given an opportunity to reply,” Mr Jayakumar replied.