Restore Rights Of Komatireddy, Sampath Kumar As MLAs: Congre

The Telangana Congress requested Governor E S L Narasimhan to direct the Telangana government and Assembly to restore all the benefits and privileges that ought to be available to Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S A Sampath Kumar as sitting MLAs to "uphold the rule of law and the judgment of the Hyderabad High Court in letter and spirit."

A delegation comprising of TPCC President N Uttam Kumar Reddy, CLP leader K Jana Reddy, Leader of Opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir, TPCC Working President Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, MLAs T Jeevan Reddy, Padmavathi Reddy, Vamshichand Reddy and Donthi Madhava Reddy, MLC Santosh Kumar and others met the Governor at Raj Bhavan today.

They informed the Governor that Reddy and Kumar had been expelled from the Assembly by "an illegal and unconstitutional resolution" by the Assembly due to "an erroneous view of fact and law" on March 13. Acting on a writ petition filed by the MLAs, the High Court had set aside the expulsion order leading to automatic restoration of the membership of Reddy and Kumar.

"Though 20 days have elapsed from the date of delivery of the judgement, neither the state government nor the Assembly have appealed against the said judgement, thereby allowing the judgement of the single judge to attain finality. The learned single judge had categorically held that the expulsion proceedings were set aside and thereby the petitioners' membership of the Assembly is automatically restored. Inspite of that, the Assembly website is still not showing the duo as MLAs, and the protocol and privileges due to MLAs are not being extended to them, all of which reflects the autocratic behavior of the state government," Reddy said.

Reddy also said that the state government's reluctance to release the video footage of the alleged attack on Council Chairman Swamy Goud into the public domain or submit the same in the High Court clearly showed that the Congress MLAs had done nothing wrong. He said that the expulsion of the two MLAs and suspension of all the remaining Congress legislators for entire session was part of TRS government's conspiracy to pass the budget without any discussion.

Reacting to Legislative Affairs Minister T Harish Rao's comments that courts had no jurisdiction over the legislature, Reddy said that the courts' interference was valid when legislatures adopted unconstitutional and undemocratic means.

Citing Articles 12 and 154 of the Constitution of India, the TPCC chief also said that the Governor was empowered to direct the state/Assembly to implement an order of the High Court.

Meanwhile, another Congress delegation submitted a separate memorandum to Chief Secretary S K Joshi on the issue.