New row in Telangana Congress over resignation call

Hyderabad: The High Court judgement on Monday, dismissing the petition of TRS MLAs against a single judge order that revoked the explusion of two legislators, has created a new controversy in the Congress. 

Reacting to the judgement, Congress MLA Komatireddy Venkat Reddy said, “After our expulsion I told CLP leader K. Jana Reddy and TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy that we were not agitating in the House for our benefit, we all want to resign. I am asking even for the en masse resignation of Congress legislators.”

“As CLP leader, Jana Reddy should protect us. We will resign after discussing it with party leaders. We must be ready for byelections”, he said. The state party leadership was not resp-onding properly, he said.

Reacting to this, CLP leader K. Jana Reddy said in a separate press conference that the legislator had not discussed the issue with him. “We did not discuss this issue. If anyone says this, I am condemning,” the CLP leader said.

“I am challenging... Jana Reddy is ready for anything and at any time. It is not proper to speak about him or somebody else repeatedly on this issue,” Mr Jana Reddy said.

He said that if the high command took the decision that all party legislators should resign from the Assembly, he would be the first person to do so. 

He said “Some Congress leaders may make allegations on the party leadership under pressure or because they were anguished, but I am not finding fault with anybody”. He said the CLP had taken all necessary steps that were legally required to secure the revocation of expulsion of the Congress MLAs. “If anyone thinks they can react in a stronger manner on this issue they can discuss with high command and take a decision,” Mr Jana Reddy said.

HC throws out appeal by TRS

In a major setback to the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), the Hyderabad High Court on Monday declared that the appeal moved by TRS MLAs challenging the order of a single judge, who had set aside the expulsion of two Congress MLAs from the Assembly, is not maintainable.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranga-nathan and Justice K Vijaya Lakshmi while dismissing an appeal by Vemula Prashanth Reddy and 11 other TRS MLAs, held that “it is only the State Legis-lature which can prefer an appeal, if it is aggr-ieved by the order of the Single Judge interdicting its decision to expel the two MLAs.”

It was also held that the power and privilege to expel a member from the House was conferred  only  on  the  Assembly  under  Article  194 (3)  of  the Constitution  which was expressed by the collective will of the members of the Legislature passing a resolution in this regard.  It said the power and privilege, of the Assembly   as   a   Constitutional institution expressed through a resolution passed  by  all  the  members  of  the  House  present  and  voting, was  not conferred on any individual member or a group of members of the Assembly.

A single judge on April 17, 2018 allowed the petition by expelled Congress MLAs Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S A Sampath Kumar by setting aside  the  resolution  of  the  Telangana  Assembly  expelling  them from the House and the  consequent  notifications  declaring  the  two legislative assembly constituencies vacant.

The bench observed that “the possibility of the appellant MLAs being remotely or indirectly affected by the order under appeal, as they had voted in favour of the resolution passed by the House, would not justify an appeal being entertained at their behest."