Justice B. Shivshankar Rao of Hyderabad High Court on Monday declared that the Election Commission of India shall not act for six weeks upon the notification issued by the Secretariat of Telangana Legislature, that the Nalgonda and Alampur Assembly segments are unrepresented.
The Secretary of Assembly was directed to submit the full video recording pertaining to incidents in Assembly that took place last Monday, in a sealed cover to the court by March 22. The case will be heard on March 27. The court was passing these interim orders in a writ petition filed by Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and Sampath Kumar challenging their expulsion from the Assembly. The judge heard the arguments of Ravi Shankar Jandhyala on behalf of the petitioners on Friday.
On Monday D. Prakash Reddy, Advocate General of Telangana, averred that the writ petition was not maintainable. He said that it was not correct to state that the Congress MLAs were expelled because they threw the ear phones. They were proceeded against because they did not behave appropriately during the address of the Governor.
If the members are suspended the people of these constituencies will not be represented as the suspended members cannot attend the House. If they are expelled, elections will be held and new MLAs will come to the House to represent the cause of people of those Assembly segments, the Advocate General said.
Justice Rao asked whether the copy of the resolution of Assembly was served upon the petitioners. The court was told that it is uploaded on the website. The Advocate General said that it will be served. He said that the video footage can be made available. The counsel for the Election Commission Avinash Desai told the court that the officers are discussing the issue and requested for some time. The case was called at 4 p.m.
The counsel for the Election Commission said that for 10 days no notification will be given.
The judge said that the Election Commission shall desist from issuing any notification for election etc for six weeks. The case will be listed on 27 March.
