House to decide expulsion row

Hyderabad: Telangana Legislative Assembly secretary Dr V. Narasimha Charyulu informed the Hyderabad High Court that it was for the Legislature to restore the membership of two Congress MLAs and he had no power in the matter. 

Law secretary V. Niranjan Rao told the court that he was being unnecessarily dragged into the dispute.

Dr Charyulu and Mr Rao stated this in their counter-affidavits filed pursuant to the notices that the High Court had issued them in the contempt case by filed by Congress MLAs Komatireddy Venkata Reddy and S.A. Sampath Kumar, who had been expelled from the Assembly.

The MLAs had moved the contempt case against the officials, seeking to punish them for not restoring their membership despite a High Court order.

Dr Charyulu submitted that it was for the Assembly to restore the membership of the petitioner and he had no power or jurisdiction. Stating that he had respect for the court, he said he had not disobeyed orders in the petitioners’ case in any manner. He said he had no role under the Constitution as far as the resolutions passed by the House were concerned.

He told the court that the rights and privileges of the members were under the purview of the Assembly. 

As per the resolution of the House, he had deleted the names of petitioners from the list of members of the House. He urged the court to close the contempt petition against him.

Mr Niranjan Rao told the high court that he had nothing do with the expulsion of the petitioners from the House and was being unnecessarily dragged into the dispute.

He said he was a responsible judicial officer and not only a law secretary; he had the responsibility to respect and implement court orders for the matters which are in his jurisdiction. The expulsion of petitioners and restoration of their membership was purely within the realm of the Legislative Assembly, he said.

The law secretary also urged the court to close the contempt against him.