The Congress party was relieved today after the High Court dismissed a petition by 12 TRS MLAs challenging a single bench verdict that reinstated expelled Telangana Congress MLAs Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S A Sampath Kumar.
Finding fault with the single bench judgement, 12 TRS MLAs had filed a petition in the Hyderabad High Court challenging it.
Getting back to work after the summer vacation, the High Court dismissed the petition of the TRS MLAs today saying that it was invalid, and that such a petition could be filed only the Speaker of the Assembly or the state's Attorney General.
For the uninitiated, the Speaker
expelled the two Congress MLAs alleging that they had hurt Legislative Council Chairman Swamy Goud
while hurling headphones. Following the decision, the Assembly Secretary issued the expulsion orders speedily, as also a notification stating that the Nalgonda and Alampur seats had turned vacant.
Challenging the expulsion, the two MLAs
approached the High Court. After a trail, the single bench judge Sivashankar Rao
dismissed the expulsion and the notification on April 17.
However, 12 TRS MLAs filed a petition before a two-member bench challenging the single bench judgement. The 12 MLAs also filed a supplementary petition seeking permission to admit the petition for trail as they were not opponents in the single bench judgement.
The court held a trail on whether to admit the 12 TRS MLAs' petition or not. Supreme Court senior advocate Vaidyanathan argued on behalf of the 12 TRS MLAs, and another Supreme Court senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued on behalf of Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and Sampath Kumar.
Singhvi argued that the government and the Election Commission were the respondents, and the court needed to take only their opinion, and that the 12 TRS MLAs had no relation to the case.
Agreeing with Singhvi's argument, the High Court dismissed the TRS MLAs' petition stating that it has no validity for a trail. The High Court also upheld the single bench judgement in the case.