From Our Spl Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Any case of breach of privilege of a legislator or house must to be referred to the Speaker who in turn refers the same to the Privilege Committee and no member can directly take up the same.
A cross section of the legislators and experts to whom this correspondent spoke about the cop-legislature duel in Meghalaya said that in no case any legislator, whichever position he is holding, can deal with a case of breach of privilege directly let alone issue summons as done by Ronnie V Lyngdoh. Ideally, since the Assembly is not in session the MLA should have referred the matter to the Speaker who would have referred the same to the Privilege Committee.
The Privilege Committee could have taken steps after a proper investigation, they said.
The Committee examines every question involving breach of privilege of the Assembly or of the members or of any Committee thereof referred to it by the House or by the Speaker. It determines with reference to the facts of each case whether a breach of privilege is involved and makes suitable recommendation in its report.
In this case Ronnie, who himself is Chairman of the Assembly Privileges Committee, issued the summons against the two police personnel unilaterally and later withdrew it ‘mutually’ after a top cop visited him.
Earlier, other members of the Privileges Committee had accused Ronnie of acting arbitrarily and not consulting them before issuing notices to the two police personnel, who had booked him for violating traffic laws, to appear before the Committee.
Meanwhile, Acting Chief Secretary PBO Warjri has observed that the two policemen who issued a summon slip and a penalty slip respectively to two legislators need to be rewarded, Our Reporter adds.
“I personally feel that the two policemen need to be acknowledged for performing their duties in their right earnest,” Warjri told reporters on Wednesday.
He further said that the two police constables showed ample courage for daring to issue the summon slip despite knowing that both Saleng A Sangma and Ronnie V Lyngdoh were influential persons.
Warjri recalled that in 1995, when James Marvin Pariat was the then Home Minister, he was issued a summon slip for parking his vehicle in no parking area.
“On seeing the police personnel issuing the summon slip, he (Pariat) called up the DGP. He called up the DGP not to complaint but to tell him that the police personnel needed to be acknowledged for performing his duties with the right conviction,” Warjri recalled.
It may be mentioned that Community and Rural Development Minister Saleng A Sangma was fined an amount of Rs 1000 for parking his vehicle in a ) no parking zone at Khyndai Lad area, whereas Chairman of the Assembly Privilege Committee, Ronnie V Lyngdoh, was issued a summon slip for parking his vehicle near St. Anthony’s Junior School which is a no parking zone. Lyngdoh, however, took exception to the slip issued by the constable and summoned the constable S Thapa and DSP (City) Cherry Shadap to appear before the Privilege Committee.
The summon was later withdrawn after Additional DGP Rajiv Mehta apologized to Lyngdoh on behalf of his juniors.