Telangana Assembly and law secretaries issued bailable warrants by Telangana HC

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Friday issued bailable warrants against Telangana Assembly secretary V. Narasimhacharyulu and law secretary V. Niranjan Rao in a contempt case filed by expelled Congress MLAs Komatireddy Venkata Reddy and Sampath Kumar.

The Speaker in the previous Assembly had expelled both MLAs from the House on the ground that they had obstructed the Governor’s speech and hurled headphones last year.

The MLAs approached the High Court which declared the expulsion illegal and directed restoration of their membership after which they moved a contempt case against the officials for non-implementation of the order.

When the case came up for hearing on Friday, Justice B. Siva Sankara Rao said that the contempt procedures issued by the single judge remained even though writ petitions of petitioners and writ appeals of the respondents were disposed of by a division bench.

The atmosphere in the court turned sour when additional advocate general J. Ramachandra Rao lost his cool after Justice Rao asked why the officials had not appeared before the court.

The AAG countered repeatedly, saying “What nonsense... What is the exuberance (sic) in insisting the respondents to appear? Are the heavens falling down?”
Picking on the use of the word “nonsense”, Justice Rao asked the AAG why he had taken an adjournment during the previous hearing. The AAG replied that the division bench headed by the Chief Justice had set aside the single-judge order when the state preferred an appeal and said that nothing stood to remain.
While recording the use of the wold “nonsense”, the judge said the court did not want a confrontation on the AAG’s comment.

While dictating the order, the judge reminded that “this court has issued Form-1 Notice to both the secretaries and they are bound to appear before the court… The division bench cannot direct this court to close the contempt case. The bench gave liberty to this court to close the contempt.”

While issuing bailable warrants, the judge directed Hyderabad police commissioner to implement the order, unless they furnish a personal bond of '10,000 each to appear before the court on February 15.