New Delhi, Nov 08: Five senior journalists of `The Hindu` newspaper today filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the Tamil Nadu Assembly decision to impose prison sentences on them for breach of privilege of the House and sought a stay on their arrest, even as PM Vajpayee expressed concern over the incident.

The journalists have requested the court to declare the resolution of Tamil Nadu Assembly sentencing them to 15 days imprisonment as illegal.
As an interim measure, the journalists have sought stay of execution of arrest warrant issued by the Speaker of the assembly.
The Speaker K Kalimuthu had issued arrest warrants against editor N Ravi, executive editor Malini Parthasarthy, publisher S Rangarajan, chief of bureau V Jayant and special correspondent Radha Venkatesan of "The Hindu".
Veteran journalist Kuldip Nayyar also filed a public interest litigation in the apex court with regard to the Tamil Nadu Assembly`s decision against "The Hindu" editor N Ravi, executive editor Malini Parthasarthy and publisher S Rangarajan but later withdrew it.
Nayyar said he had filed the petition as "near friends" of the daily`s three executives but now that a petition covering all the five including chief of bureau V Jayant and special correspondent Radha Venkatesan of The Hindu has been moved, he decided to withdraw his petition, Nayyar added.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Vajpayee also expressed concern over the "incident" in Chennai last night, particularly the type of action being taken against journalists.
This was conveyed to editor-in-chief of The Hindu, N Ram who had telephoned the Prime Minister to apprise him of the "developments".
Bureau Report