The Hyderabad High Court today reserved its verdict in the case filed by expelled Congress MLAs Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S A Sampath Kumar.
The arguments were completed today. Senior advocate Jandhyala Ravishankar argued on behalf of the Congress MLAs. He said that the Speaker had failed to inform the MLAs in writing about their expulsion. The government merely posted the GO in the Assembly website on March 19 with the Governor's signature after the MLAs approached the court, but didn't mention the reasons for their expulsion, Ravishankar said.
He also said that based on media reports the Speaker appeared to have expelled the two Congress MLAs for injuring an eye of Legislative Council Chairman Swamy Goud by throwing headphones, but the Assembly authorities had failed to submit any video footage proving that.
He further argued that the Governor's speech did not even form part of the Assembly session.
Nobody had been representing the state government after the resignation of Advocate General Prakash Reddy, but today Additional Advocate General Ramachandra Rao argued the case. He said that there was no interference by the state government in the expulsion of the two MLAs.
The Election Commission's counsel informed the court that they were required to conduct by-elections for the two constituencies represented by the expelled MLAs within six months from the date of expulsion, but following the directions of the court, were unable to initiate any action.
After hearing the arguments of all the parties, the court reserved the verdict.
filed in:Courts, High Court, Legal, Hyderabad High Court, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, Telangana Congress