The Democratic Alliance (DA) has vowed to take legal action against Parliament following a ruling against using court judgments or quotes to “offend or cast aspersions” on other MPs.

Deputy Speaker Lechesa Tsenoli opened proceedings on Thursday by ruling on a number of issues that had been outstanding.

Tsenoli said remarks had been made recently which were ruled out of order.

Most of these were made during the Presidency’s budget vote debate in Parliament last week. Opposition parties had referred to President Jacob Zuma as a “thief and criminal”, following the Nkandla and the spy tapes court rulings.

Tsenoli ruled on Thursday that while it was permissible to quote from court judgments, it was not acceptable to use these to “cast aspersions on members or make accusations”.

He said if this was allowed, the House would descend into chaos. He challenged MPs opposed to the ruling to approach the relevant structures.

Opposition party MPs accused him of using bullying tactics. DA Chief Whip John Steenhuisen said they would challenge the ruling in the rules committee.

“It cannot be right that the rules of this House will trump the Constitution. We will see you in court,” he said.