HYDERABAD: In a major relief to the ruling TRS, the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday suspended an order by a single-judge bench which set aside the expulsion of Congress MLAs Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S.A. Sampath Kumar from the Assembly.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan and Justice V. Ramasubramanian while dealing with the appeals by V. Narasimhacharyulu, secretary of the Assembly and V. Niranjan Rao, law secretary, granted interim stay on the single judge order. The court also stayed further proceedings in the contempt case moved by the MLAs against both the secretaries.
The bench also allowed the applications of the appellants seeking condonation of 61 days delay in filing the appeals. Earlier, the single judge issued Form-1 notices to both the secretaries and also a show cause notice to Speaker N. Madhusudhana Chary.
The single judge directed both the secretaries to appear before the court at a later date. Suspending the operation of the single judge order and all further proceedings in the contempt case for a period of two months, the bench felt the issue needed detailed hearings in view of the different contentions and arguments advanced by both the parties. Former attorney general appearing for Assem-bly Secretary, Mukul Rohatgi contended that the single judge ought not to have passed the order setting aside the resolution of the House expelling the petitioners for not furnishing the video footage relating to the Governor’s address to the House.
He told the court that both the petitioners were expelled from the House for throwing the earphone at the Speaker’s dais which caused injury to the Chairman of the Legislative Council. Reacting to the contentions of senior counsel, the bench asked him whether the issue was within the purview of the court or not. Mr Rohatgi, while replying in the affirmative, said that the court had certain limitations to review the decisions taken by the House.
He submitted that it would not be proper for the court to review the incident which had taken place within the House. He reminded that the court had not intervened in the case of YSR Congress MLA R.K. Roja and the court had also sentenced in the case of Congress MLA Sudheer Kumar in a contempt case.
Senior counsel from the Supreme Court, Harin Ravel, senior appearing for the law secretary contended that the petitioner MLAs had not raised any objection on March 13 while the House passed the resolution expelling them from the House. He said that the House had the power to take action against its members whoever indulged in criminal acts and the expulsion of the petitioners was justifiable.
