Roja's Suspension Intact As HC Stays Earlier Order

A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court set aside the interim order given last week by a single judge of the same court - the order that exempted YSR Congress Party MLA Roja from the 1-year suspension handed out to her by the Andhra Pradesh Assembly until the final order in the case was pronounced.

This means that the MLA is back to being suspended.

The interim order was just that - an interim order, a temporary relief, until the case was decided by the same single judge. That case is still under adjudication, with the MLA and the Andhra Pradesh government still to fight it out in the court.

The division bench directed the AP government to file a counter to the petition filed by Roja.

Roja was given the relief by the single judge bench based on her contention that she had been handed out the suspension under the wrong clause - a technicality.

The division bench seemed to have agreed with the contention of the counsel for the AP government that that did not matter since the Assembly had full rights to suspend any member anyway, and so an error in the section should not matter.

Roja was suspended for misconduct in the Assembly.