Another judiciary, legislature clash looms over arrest

NEW DELHI: Another "legislature versus judiciary" confrontation looms in the wake of the Maharashtra assembly refusing to accept court notices in a petition filed by election commissioner Nandlal against his arrest. Legal experts are unwilling to hazard a guess on the outcome but have drawn parallels with the recent stand-off when Parliament, led by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, bluntly refused to answer notices and summons on petitions filed by MPs disqualified by the House in the cash-for-query scandal. Senior advocate K K Venugopal saw it as a "traditional stand-off" which had clear guidelines laid down by the SC in Keshav Singh case. While refusing to speak on the specifics of the case, he suggested that the court had the competence to intervene in situations similar to one that Nandlal finds himself in. "If life and liberty of a citizen are violated with respect to his action outside the House, then the court can examine if there is a breach of privilege or not," he said. Subhash Kashyap, constitutional expert, said there was a clear impression of the election commissioner having been victimised. He agreed that "assembly has the power to do what it has done", but added that action against Nandlal smacked of "misuse of power". While finding the breach of privilege as "overreaction", as it has to be used in rarest of rare cases, Kashyap said it was well within the judiciary's jurisdiction to intervene in the case.
THE TIMES OF INDIA; 29 Mar 2008, 0129 hrs IST , TNN