HC Takes Up Expelled Telangana Congress MLAs' Case

The Hyderabad High Court today took up the case of expelled Congress MLAs Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S A Sampath Kumar, on Friday.

The Congress MLAs' advocate Ravishankar Jandhyala argued asking why Council Chairman K Swamy Goud had visited the Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital 17 minutes after Governor E S L Narasimhan's address to the joint session on March 12 if he had indeed suffered such a serious eye injury.

He told the court that there was in fact no attack on the day, and that the expulsion of the Congress MLAs was anti-constitutional and was done with political motives.

"We have doubts about the entire episode, and are seeking CC footage in this regard," he said. "For example, Alampur MLA S A Sampath Kumar was not even in the video, but Speaker S Madhusudhana Chary had expelled him, too, from the House. The Speaker's action was unilateral and against the Constitution."

The court then asked the Advocate General Prakash Reddy to submit the CC footage sought by the petitioners' advocate. The Advocate General sought time till Monday to submit the footage. The High Court then adjourned the case to Monday.

Meanwhile, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy applied for the CC footage of the Legislative Assembly proceedings on March 12 from the Legislature Secretary under the RTI Act.

For the uninitiated, Telangana Assembly Speaker S Madhusudhana Chary expelled two Congress MLAs - Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S A Sampath Kumar - alleging that the Legislative Council Chairman K Swamy Goud had received an eye injury in an attack by the two Congress MLAs on March 12 when the Governor was addressing a joint session of the Assembly and the Council. The Speaker also suspended the remaining Congress MLAs for the entire budget session. The Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Council Nethi Vidyasagar, too, suspended five Congress MLCs for the entire session.