Petitions leave Telangana Assembly Speaker Madhusudana Chary with tough decisions

Hyderabad: The task on hand for TS Assembly Speaker S. Madhusudana Chary, to act on two petitions before him – one seeking disqualification of TD MLAs who switched loyalties to the TRS and the other seeking merger of these MLAs into the ruling party — is not as easy as it appears.

The issue of disqualification of the TD MLAs is quite complicated, since the petitioner —Errabelli Dayakar Rao — has himself defected to the TRS and is now seeking merger of the party in the TRS along with nine other TD MLAs.

Assembly sources said Mr Chary will begin consulting legal experts from Monday before he deals with the petitions.

Each petition is a separate case by itself and should be disposed of keeping in view the disposition of such cases in the past by various other Presiding Officers.

Mr Chary needs to dispose of petitions pertaining to: (a) Disqualification of TD, Congress and YSR Congress MLAs who joined the TRS; (b) resignation of Talasani Srinivas Yadav from the membership of the House; and (c) a fresh petition by Mr Dayakar Rao seeking merger of the 10 TD MLAs into the TRS.

There has been some movement on the disqualification petitions submitted by the three political parties, by way of Speaker issuing notices seeking replies and the members seeking more time to respond.

Though the same political parties had approached higher courts seeking action against the abnormal delay by Speaker in disposing of their petitions, there has been no specific direction from the courts to the Speaker. The courts have ruled that as per Constitutional provisions, only the Speaker is empowered to take a decision.

The courts have advised the petitioners that they can seek judicial remedy only when the Presiding Officer adjudicates the matter at his level.

The most important thing is that the Speaker needs to pronounce his decision with full justification and facts.