A submission was made on behalf of Assembly Secretary before the Madras High Court on Monday that the Legislative Assembly was not a government office, and therefore, Government Orders (GO) related to display of portraits in government offices would have no application to those displayed within the precincts of the Assembly.
Appearing before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose, Advocate-General Vijay Narayan said the Legislative Assembly could not be construed as a government office at all, and therefore, two GOs, one issued on June 4, 2006, and the other on January 5, 2015, would have no application to it. The submission was made when Senior Counsel P. Wilson, representing DMK MLA J. Anbazhagan, requested the court to club a writ petition filed recently to remove the portrait of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa from the Assembly with another writ petition filed last year challenging the two GOs issued in 2006 and 2015.