Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday reserved its orders on a petition questioning the Bulletin issued on March 10, 2016 by the TS Legislature Secretariat merging TS Telugu Desam Legislature Party with the TRS Legislature Party.
Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao was hearing a petition moved by A. Revanth Reddy, TD MLA and party Floor Leader in the Assembly. The petition said that the Speaker, who is also Chairman of the Tribunal under Schedule X, only has the jurisdiction to decide on disqualification and cannot decide on the merger of a political party independently as per the Constitution.
While commencing the argument, TS A-G K. Ramakrishna Reddy informed the court that he was appearing on behalf of the Secretary of the Legislative Assembly.
The judge took exception as the Secretary had communicated the decision of the Speaker as a ministerial job and said that the A-G cannot advance arguments on the merits of the case as the Secretary has no role since the decision was taken by the Speaker.
The A-G told the court that the Secretary was aware of the decision of the Speaker and being the A-G, he had every right to appear on behalf of the secretary and the government. In fact, he has received instructions to appear in the present writ, Mr Reddy said.
At this stage, a heated argument took place between the judge and the A-G and the AG, in a raised voice, submitted that he will argue the matter in the capacity of an advocate-general of the state and he was entitled to argue and the court shall not desist him from arguing in the matter. The judge cautioned the A-G not to raise his voice and said that at the most, Mr Reddy could appear for the Secretary but not for the Speaker.
The A-G, while referring to Article 177 of the Constitution, said that he could appear on behalf of the Speaker and further submitted that prior to this petition also, a writ was filed seeking disqualification of the MLAs who defected to TRS. A division bench had passed an order and as of now, the matter was pending in the Supreme Court.
When the A-G said that usually, the courts will not issue notice to the Speaker and there was protection from the judicial review on the decisions taken by the Legislature, the judge said courts do have judicial review in these type of issues and there are judgments of the Supreme Court.
The A-G said that the Speaker had allotted the seats to the 12 MLAs who joined TRS and bulletin also explains the same and there was nothing more in it.
During the course of hearing, J. Ramachandra Rao, additional advocate general appeared before the court and submitted that all the 12 MLAs have been issued notices and he was instructed to appear on their behalf. He sought two days to argue in the matter. The judge declined to grant him the time and asked him to argue at 2.30 pm, but he could not do so.
