TRS Plea Against Komatireddy Reinstatement Adjourned

The Hyderabad High Court today heard arguments on the petition filed by 12 TRS MLAs urging the court to set aside its single-judge bench judgement nullifying the Speaker's decision to expel Congress MLAs Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S A Sampath Kumar for allegedly going berserk in the Assembly.

It may be mentioned here that while Governor E S L Narasimhan was addressing the joint session of the legislature on March 12, almost all the Congress members rose from their feet and resorted to unruly acts. Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S A Sampath Kumar are alleged to have gone some steps further and hurled their headphones at the Governor, and hit Council Chairman K Swamy Goud instead, injuring the latter's eye. The next day, the Assembly passed a resolution expelling the duo.

The petitioners' counsel Vaidyanathan argued that the 12 MLAs were members of the Assembly and had a right to file the petition against the "rogue" Congress MLAs. The petitioner also submitted video clippings of the incident transmitted in news channels. Vaidyanathan pleaded with the court to intervene and quash the single judge order to reinstate the respondents.

The High Court observed that the Assembly should have sought an explanation from the two expelled MLAs before announcing its decision. The Assembly might not have taken such a harsh decision had it received explanations from the two MLAs, the court opined.

After hearing both the counsels, the court adjourned the case to Monday.