Hyderabad HC grants partial relief to suspended Congress MLAs

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Monday granted partial respite to expelled Congress MLAs Komati Reddy Venkat Reddy and S.A. Sampath Kumar by directing the Election Commission of India not to take any further steps for six weeks on the notification of the Speaker of the Telangana Assembly notifying the vacancies of Nalgonda and Alampur assembly segments.

Justice B. Siva Sankara Rao while admitting the petition of the MLAs challenging the action of the Speaker in expelling them and notifying the vacancies, directed the Secretary to the Telangana Legislative Assembly to submit the entire video footage of the Governor's address to the House on March 12 to the court in a sealed cover by March 22.  

It may be recalled that Mr Komati Reddy Venkat Reddy had allegedly thrown his ear phones at the Governor and they hit and caused injury to the Chairman of the Legislative Council, for which act the MLA had been expelled from the house. 

D. Prakash Reddy, advocate-general appearing for the Secretary to the Assembly, submitted that the petitioners was expelled for tarnishing the image of the House with their unruly behaviour during the Governor’s address, and not on the grounds of throwing ear phones and causing injury to the Chairman of the Legislative Council.

Maintaining that it was the decision of the House not the decision of the Speaker, the AG contended that the Speaker had power to expel the members for their unruly behaviour inside as well as outside the House.

He submitted that the members have no right to behave as per their wish when a person who is holding a constitutional post is addressing the House.

Stating that the petitioners have not expressed any regret for throwing the ear phones at the Governor, the AG said that suspension of a member would have an adverse impact on the people of his constituency than his expulsion. 

Expulsion on the other hand, the AG said would result into a vacancy and a fresh election of a new member. 

When the AG said that the Speaker acted on the resolution moved by the House, the judge asked him whether the copy of the resolution was furnished to the petitioners or not. The AG replied that it was already uploaded on the website of the House.

The judge repeated his question: whether the copy had been officially furnished to the petitioners or not. The AG said that if necessary they will be given right now.

Reacting to the query from the judge whether interim relief may be granted to the petitioners, the AG said that the resolution of expulsion cannot be stayed as the petitioners have not questioned it in their plea.

The AG told the court that they are unable to provide video footage as they had sought specific footage of the Governor’s address.

The counsel for the petitioners told the court they had sought the specific footage of the incident? as two cameras out of six were focused on the Governor.

The AG said that they are prepared to furnish the footage available with them.

When the judge sought the response of Avinash Desai, counsel for the Election Commission, the latter sought a brief adjournment to get instructions and accordingly the judge adjourned the case to 3.30 pm.

When the judge resumed the hearing the counsel for the EC said no election notification for both segments will be issued for the next 10 days.

The judge then passed interim direction to the EC not to hold elections till further orders. At this juncture Mr. Desai brought to the notice of the court the Supreme Court order in the case of the Election Commission versus Bhajrang Bahadur Singh, wherein the apex court issued the guidelines in disqualification cases.

Then the judge granted the order restraining the EC from taking further steps on the notification of the Speaker for a period of six weeks and posted the case to March 27.