Expulsion case: ECI, Law Secretary file counters

The Election Commission of India (ECI) and State Law Secretary have urged the High Court to dismiss the writ petitions making them party to the expulsion of Congress member K. Venkat Reddy and S.A. Sampath Kumar from the Legislative Assembly.

In the counter submitted to the High Court on Friday on behalf of the ECI, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer M. Satyavani said the allegations contained in the writ petition were not against the Election Commission and therefore, they were not being traversed. It was the duty of the EC to conduct by-election for filling any vacancy under Section 147, 149 and 150 within a period of six months from the date of occurrence of the vacancy.

She recalled that the High Court directed the EC not to take any further steps subsequent to notification of vacancy for a period of six weeks from March 19. Accordingly, the EC had not taken any step so far to conduct the by-election in compliance with the orders of the court. Ms. Satyavani urged the court to dismiss the writ petitions filed against the EC and pass further orders as it deemed fit and proper in the circumstances.

In his counter, Law Secretary V. Niranjan Rao said the petitioners had not ventilated any grievance against the law department nor sought any relief. The petitioners, it appeared, under a misconception impleaded the Law Secretary as respondent. In the entire issue highlighted by the petitioners in the writ petition, no proceeding had been issued nor was there any likelihood of his involvement in future.