Orders reserved in Cong. MLAs expulsion case

Justice B. Siva Sankar Rao of Hyderabad High Court has reserved orders in the case of expulsion of two Congress MLAs from Telangana Assembly, having heard arguments of their counsel on Monday.

Jandhyala Ravi Shankar, counsel for the expelled MLAs — Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and A.S. Sampath Kumar — pleaded with the court to set aside expulsion of the legislators, citing multiple judgments of the Supreme Court and High Courts in different cases. Beginning his argument, the lawyer said the assurance of the Advocate General B. Prakash Reddy that video footage of Assembly would be presented to the court was binding on the State.

The advocate submitted to the court that no notice was served to the two MLAs before their expulsion. The order of expulsion, which was uploaded onto the website of the Assembly, didn’t mention of the alleged injury suffered by the Council Speaker due to hurling of earphone by MLA Venkat Reddy, the lawyer contended.

“Instead of mentioning about the injury, the order simply said unruly action of legislators,” Mr. Ravi Shankar argued.

Mr. Venkat Reddy and Mr. Sampath Kumar, representing Nalgonda and Alampur constituencies respectively, were expelled by Telangana Assembly on March 13. The two legislators moved the High Court on March 16 seeking orders to declare their expulsion as illegal.

Subsequently, Justice B. Siva Sankara Rao of the High Court directed the Election Commission of India not to issue election notification for six weeks to the two constituencies of the expelled MLAs after hearing the petitioners’ counsel and directed the AG to present video footage of the Assembly relating to the incident.

Meanwhile, the AG resigned from the post and Additional AG J. Ramchander Rao filed the counter on Friday as directed by the Justice. Having replied to the counter, Mr. Ravi Shankar presented and concluded his arguments on Monday.