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Speaker rejects Court directive

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM SEPT. 16. The Kerala Assembly Speaker, Vakkom Purushothaman, has said the judiciary has no right to direct the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly to submit before it documents in the possession of the House.

(The Thiruvananthapuram Judicial First Class Magistrate, Nixon M. Joseph, had on Monday issued an order directing the Speaker to produce the facsimile message from the AICC general secretary, Ahmed Patel, dismissing five Congress MLAs from the party. Earlier, the Chief Minister's Principal Secretary, G. Gopalakrishna Pillai, had informed the court that his office could not furnish a copy of the fax since the message had been handed over to the Speaker on July 21 last.)

Mr. Purushothaman told reporters here today that not even the High Court had ever directed the Speaker to do so. If ever such a necessity arose, the directive would be addressed to the Secretary to the Legislature. The Speaker was duty-bound to uphold the prestige of the House and could not be expected to comply with such directives, he said.

Mr. Purushothaman said he was indeed in possession of the fax message sent by the AICC seeking disqualification of five Congress MLAs, including two Ministers, just before the recent Rajya Sabha election. The message was forwarded to him by the Chief Minister's office. Although he had great respect for the judiciary, there was no question of his producing the fax message before the Court, he added.

The Speaker said the fax message was still valid. When forwarding it, the Chief Minister, who is the leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP), had not issued any instructions as to what should be done about it. He could take appropriate decisions on it, subject to a request from the CLP leader, Mr. Purushothaman said.

Plachimada visit

The Speaker said he had not overruled the visit of the Subject Committee on Water Resources to the Plachimada plant of Coca-Cola on Monday. All that he had done was to question the rationale of the Subject Committee doing what was normally the job of the House Committee on Environment. The Subject Committee should have fixed the date for its visit to Plachimada in consultation with the Speaker. It was improper for it to have failed to do so and equally improper for the members of the Subject Committee to have made public statements on the subject, he said.

Ambedkar statue

The Speaker said the proposal to install statues of Mahatma Gandhi, B. R. Ambedkar and Jawharlal Nehru on the Legislature premises would be carried out soon. A high-level committee had been constituted for the purpose with himself, the Chief Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and Ministers of Finance and Public Works as its members.

The committee had invited quotations, but had found these to be too low. He had then decided to prepare a list of sculptors who could be entrusted with the job. The list was ready and a decision on how to go about implementing the scheme would be taken at the high-level committee meeting slated for later this evening, he said.

By-poll

Commenting on the rampant groupism in the Congress over the selection of candidates for the Ernakulam Lok Sabha by-election, Mr. Purushothaman said the Congress nominee, M.O. John, was the first `party candidate' in the constituency in several years. Earlier, he said, the party fielded only a `group candidate'. Mr. John was not the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony's candidate. Nor was he a candidate of any particular group.

The Congress, he said, could do well with a little less of groupism. In the past too, there was groupism in the party, but it never reached a level where the very existence of the party came under threat. Groupism on such a scale would gladden only those who wished to destroy the Congress. He was of the firm view that merit should be the sole criterion for selection of candidates in elections.

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