The High Court of Madras has postponed the next hearing in the ‘Gutka’ case involving the DMK MLAs to 27th October.

DMK MLAs displayed the banned gutka sachets in the State Legislative Assembly a few months back during the debate on grants to various Departments, mainly to drive home the fact that the banned stuff was easily available in retail outlets across the State. Speaker Dhanapal sent the issue to the Privileges Committee of the Assembly which served notices to 21 DMK MLAs including M.K. Stalin, the Leader of the Opposition.

The DMK MLAs sought 15 days’ time to respond to the show-cause notice of the House Committee.  Further, Stalin moved the High Court challenging the notices issued by the House Privileges Committee. When the case was took up initially, the Court barred Speaker Dhanapal from initiating action on the notices issued by the Privileges Committee.

When the case came up for hearing yesterday, the next hearing was postponed to 27th October as the Assembly Secretary, Speaker and the Privileges Committee Chairman sought more time to furnish their explanation.