The Madras High Court on Tuesday recorded the submission of Advocate General P.S. Raman that the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Speaker M. Appavu is evaluating the procedures followed in other States with respect to live telecast of the proceedings of the House.
First Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice J. Sathya Narayana Prasad granted time till June 25 for the Speaker to take a decision on the issue since it was represented that some States were yet to respond to the details sought by the Assembly secretariat.
The submissions were made in response to a 2015 writ petition filed by Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) former leader A. Vijayakant, who died recently, and a 2023 writ petition by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) chief whip S.P. Velumani.
The petitioners had complained that only select proceedings of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly were being telecast live and the rest were being aired after editing out the questions posed by the oppostion members and by giving prominence only to the members of the treasury benches.
On its part, the Assembly Secretariat feared that the power of the Speaker to expunge certain remarks from the records might lose its meaning if all the proceedings of the House get telecasted live. Therefore, it decided to evaluate the procedures followed in other States before taking a final call on the issue.
