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Uproar in Assembly over resolution on Balan issue

Special Correspondent

House expresses reservations over arrest warrants

Electricity Minister A.K. Balan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Opposition members shouted slogans in the Assembly on Tuesday protesting against Speaker K. Radhakrishnan allowing voting on a resolution expressing the House's reservations over a court issuing arrest warrants against Electricity Minister A.K. Balan and Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA M. Chandran.

They later squatted on the steps of the Assembly complex and continued shouting slogans against the "Government's insistence in dragging the entire legislature into an unhealthy confrontation with the judiciary."

The Ottappalam First Class Judicial Court's decision to issue arrest warrants against the Minister and the MLA created uproar twice in the Assembly on Tuesday. The first, leading to a walkout, was during the zero hour when the Speaker disallowed permission to Congress MLA V.D. Satheeshan to move an adjournment motion to discuss the propriety of Mr. Balan continuing as a Minister.

Opposing the adjournment motion, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said the verdict against Mr. Balan and Mr. Chandran had come in a case relating to an agitation for a public cause [rail blockade by the Democratic Youth Federation of India] and not one involving corruption. He said they would go in appeal against the First Class Judicial Magistrate's verdict.

At this point, Law Minister M. Vijayakumar said that ``but for the political motives behind the adjournment motion, it should be considered an excellence one." The Opposition caught hold of this remark and insisted that, if it was indeed an "excellent adjournment motion," the House business should be adjourned for the day to take up a discussion on the propriety of Mr. Balan continuing as the Minister.

House adjourned

In the argument that followed, some members of the ruling front and the Opposition almost came to blows, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House for nearly two hours. When the House reassembled, the Speaker, after expressing his unhappiness over the incident, rejected permission to move the adjournment motion, leading to the Opposition walkout.

The second uproar came after the end of the day's legislative business, when the Speaker permitted Mr. Vijayakumar to introduce a resolution expressing the strong reservations of the House against the circumstances of the arrest warrants against Mr. Balan and Mr. Chandran. The resolution said that Mr. Balan's presence was required in the Assembly on Monday and the court, despite being informed, had not taken this into consideration while issuing arrest warrant against him for not being present in the court in person.

The resolution said that the legislature and the judiciary should have mutual respect. It proposed bringing the circumstances of the Judicial First Class Magistrate's decision to slap arrest warrants against Mr. Balan to the notice of the Indian President, the Chief Justices of the Supreme Court and the Kerala High Court and the Governor.

Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy said that, as per convention, such resolutions would be introduced in the House only through consensus. Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, however, insisted that if the Opposition did not want to have the resolution passed unanimously, it should be put to vote.

The Speaker quickly called polling on the resolution and declared it as passed, even as the Opposition members, abstaining from voting, got up on their feet and started shouting slogans.

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