Eight members of the Manipur Assembly’s Privilege Committee today resigned protesting against the Speaker’s alleged delay in sending notices to the two Gauhati High Court judges that were recommended a week ago.The members, two of the Manipur People’s Party (MMP), five of the Federal Party of Manipur (FPM) and one from the BJP, complained in the House that the Speaker was ‘‘unnecessarily’’ delaying issuing the Privilege Committee notices to Justice N. Surjamani Singh and Justice B.B. Deb and sent their resignation to Deputy Speaker L. Lala, who was in the chair.Speaker T.N. Haokip is in his hometown, Churachandpur. Haokip is also apparently buying time on the ground that he is consulting Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi.It was Nimaichand Luwang of the MPP who brought up the matter on the last day of the on-going monsoon session of the Assembly. He said there was no point holding back the privilege notices to the two judges after the committee’s decision was adopted by the House seven days ago. He asked why the Speaker had not implemented it.Other Opposition members too joined the row, with Nilachandra Singh of the FPM saying that the Speaker may be the custodian of the House but not its master. Even if the Speaker wanted to consult the Lok Sabha Speaker, he should have taken the permission of the House, Singh said.Today was the second consecutive day that the matter came up in the Assembly. Meanwhile, Gauhati High Court Chief Justice P.P. Naolekar has flown to Imphal from Guwahati to assess the situation arising out of the strike by lawyers, high court bench employees and state judicial officers in protest against the Assembly’s summons to the two judges.
