The Madras High Court has stayed the proceedings of the Privileges Committee of the Tamil Nadu Assembly against AIADMK chief and leader of the Opposition J Jayalalitha, on Friday, on a breach of privilege issue raised by Local Administration Minister M K Stalin in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

Mr Stalin had raised the issue over Ms Jayalalitha's remark, in the wake of the incursion of a stranger into her house, that he, his father and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi were plotting to eliminate her. She made the allegation at a press conference.

Justice K Suguna, while granting the interim stay on a writ petition filed by Ms Jayalalitha also ordered that notices, returnable by four weeks, be issued to the Assembly secretary, privileges committee chairman and Mr Stalin.

Ms Jayalalitha moved the court after receiving a letter from the Assembly secretary, seeking her reply to the privilege motion. She contended that the issue was outside the purview of the House and her comment was not about Mr Stalin’s functioning  as a member in the Assembly. She said: “I have not commented upon his activities as a member of the legislature or anything about the House.

The individual comment based on the information laid before me is totally alien to the privilege issue that could be raisd in the legislature”. Stating that she was also an MLA like Mr Stalin, Ms Jayalalitha submitted that he could not claim blanket immunity.