The Tamil Nadu (TN) administration was questioned by the Madras High Court on Tuesday over why the proceedings of the State legislature cannot be broadcast at the conclusion of each assembly session after all deleted statements have been removed from the video [Vijaykant v. The Secretary].
A panel of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice PD Audikesavalu further asked TN Advocate General R Shunmugasundaram to confirm whether a plan to broadcast zero-hour talks live was already being discussed.
The bench was considering two public interest litigation (PIL) petitions that two regional parties from the State filed in 2012 and 2015 asking for a live broadcast of the TN Assembly sessions. [1]
AIADMK leader SP Velumani has also called for such a live broadcast and requested indictment in the case on June 6 of this year.
Senior Advocate Vijay Narayan, Velumani’s counsel, told the court on Tuesday that Tamil Nadu only broadcasts truncated portions of the assembly proceedings on the mobile app, “National eVidhan App,” which allows users to watch the proceedings of the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, and all legislative assemblies across the nation on their phones.
The TN administration, according to Velumani and the original PIL petitioners D Jagadheeswaran and A Vijayakant, is purported to have edited out video of statements and queries posed by opposition members in the legislature.
However, Advocate General Shunmugasundaram denied the accusations. He also made reference to a further counter-affidavit submitted by the State Assembly Secretary K Srinivasan, which claimed that the speaker of the assembly had just informed the House that the idea to broadcast zero-hour remarks live on television was being considered. [2]
The Advocate General was then asked by the bench to clarify if and when the speaker had made any such claims.
It then inquired as to why proceedings could not be broadcast upon “editing expunged remarks?”
The case will be heard by the court again on June 26.
Written by- Himanshu Mishra, a student at St. Mother Teresa Law Degree College, Lucknow, 2nd Semester, an intern under Legal Vidhiya.
Reference:
[1] BAR AND BENCH, https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/madras-high-court-asks-tamil-nadu-government-why-state-assembly-proceedings-cannot-be-telecast (last visited on June 21, 2023);
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