Suspension of 3 BJP MLAs: Telangana High Court declines to intervene

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court division bench headed by Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice A Venkateswara Reddy refused to direct the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly on the revocation of suspension of three BJP MLAs, Raghunandan Rao, Eatala Rajender and Raja Singh, from the ongoing budget session. But it directed the Speaker to give an audience to the three MLAs on their plea on Tuesday, before the commencement of the Assembly session.

The court directed the suspended MLAs to approach the secretary of the State Legislature Narasimha Charyulu with a copy of the day's judgment, who in turn will place the order of the HC before the Speaker, who will give an audience to the MLAs.

Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, during the course of arguments, observed that though the recent Supreme Court judgment in Raja Rampal case gives power to the courts to interfere in the proceedings of the Assembly to some extent, the courts cannot direct the Assembly Speaker in taking a decision.

Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, during the course of adjudication of the appeal, said "the Speaker is a high Constitutional post. He is above party politics. We hope and trust that he will take a decision that will ensure further cause of parliamentary democracy which gets strengthened only with the presence of the elected representatives".

"We hope that the Speaker will rise to the occasion, as the guardian of the Constitution and the Assembly and take an appropriate decision in tune with the high customs and conventions of the parliamentary democracy."

Earlier the division bench directed the Registrar (Judicial) of the HC to serve notices on Narasimha Charyulu. It also directed the Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad, to ensure that the notices are served on Monday itself.

D Prakash Reddy, senior counsel, appearing for the BJP MLAs informed the court that they were suspended from the ongoing budget session on March 7. Aggrieved by such action, the MLAs filed a writ petition in the HC on March 10, seeking a stay on their suspension.

He said the Assembly Secretary was called on his cell phone, but he did not respond and later switched off the phone. Neither the special messenger from the HC registry nor the personal assistant of Raghunandan Rao, one of the petitioners, could succeed in serving the notice on the Assembly Secretary as the police and the Assembly marshals restrained them from going into the Assembly, despite showing the order of the HC and the identity cards of the person. The writ appeal was disposed of.