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Legislature, judiciary on war path in Assam

The legislature and judiciary in Assam are heading for an unprecedented confrontation with both serving notices against each other.

The privilege committee of the state assembly had summoned the district session judge of Dibrugarh to appear before it, while the latter was all set to draw up contempt proceedings against assembly Speaker Ganesh Kutum.

The crux of the confrontation was the arrest of Congress MLA Jaychandra Nagbongshi on the charge of a criminal assault of a woman, besides failure of the court to intimate the speaker.

The speaker had summoned Session Judge G C Paul to appear before the privilege committee of the assembly on July 6, informing that the committee would sit at room two of the assembly secretariat at 1130 hours.

The notice to the session judge said, "I have received a report from the privilege committee holding you guilty of breach of privilege for violation of Rules 177 and 178 of the rule of procedure and conduct of business in the assembly."

The accusation against the session judge was that the latter had failed to inform the speaker before issuing orders to arrest the Congress MLA. The judge found it not obligatory to inform the speaker on the arrest of an MLA in a criminal case.

But the judge took umbrage at this and he served notices to the secretary of the state assembly asking why contempt proceedings would not be drawn against members of the privilege committee. The notice was returnable yesterday, but the assembly secretariat ignored it choosing the path of confrontation.

The speaker's notice on the judge said, "I have pursued the report and found that you have defied and flouted the lawful order of the committee by failing to submit any written statement in response to the notices given to you. I hereby direct to appear before the committee on July 6."

With both the judiciary and legislature sticking to their ground, a murky battle is almost imminent.

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