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Thamaraikani gets out and back in jail

Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker P T R Palanivel Rajan today ordered the re-arrest of All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam politician R Thamaraikani, who was released on bail this afternoon on the order of the Madras high court, intensifying the confrontation between the judiciary and the legislature.

Thamaraikani was first arrested on a warrant issued by the speaker on March 22 detaining him for one week for attacking Agriculture Minister Veerapadi Arumugam in the House.

Even as the high court suspended the speaker's warrant and ordered his release on bail yesterday, the assembly adopted a unanimous resolution sentencing Thamaraikani to 15 days' simple imprisonment.

This morning the high court repeated its order to the jail authorities to release Thamaraikani forthwith when counsel for AIADMK MP O S Manian, who had filed a habeas corpus petition, informed it that its order had not been complied with.

The MLA was released on bail from the Madras central prison at 1340 hours IST.

But the speaker announced his re-arrest in the state assembly in the afternoon after leaders of various political parties, including Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and leader of the house and Education Minister K Anbazhagan unanimously expressed the view that he should protect the supremacy of the house.

The speaker said the jail authorities had released Thamaraikani on bail and he was ordering his re-arrest to give effect to the assembly's unanimous resolution sentencing him to 15 days' in prison. The earlier seven-day detention was for Thamaraikani's protection, he added.

The assembly, which discussed the issue threadbare this morning, unanimously held that the House is supreme and the judiciary should not interfere in its functioning.

Palanivel Rajan said he would not take cognisance of the habeas corpus petition filed in the high court by Manian citing the speaker, the chief secretary and the assembly secretary as respondents. "The House is the Supreme Court as also the high court as far as I am concerned," he said.

Palanivel Rajan also ruled that the assembly secretary need not receive any summons sent by the high court in this connection.

It was left to the state government to decide whether the chief secretary should receive the summons, he added.

The speaker made it clear that he was not interested in having a conflict with the judiciary. As an individual he would abide by all judicial rulings, but as a speaker he would not take cognisance of any judicial authority other than the House, he explained.

UNI

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