NEW DELHI: A writ petition filed by M Narayan Reddy, former MP and former MLA from Nizamabad, seeking a direction to the Speaker of Andhra Pradesh to accept the resignations of the MLAs was mentioned for urgent hearing by advocate Subodh Markandeya on Wednesday.
Markandeya told a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justices J M Panchal and B S Chauhan that the petition was filed for non-acceptance of resignation of MLAs by the Speaker. At this, the Chief Justice said the case would be listed for hearing on February 1.
The petitioner contended that all the MLAs belonging to Telangana had submitted their resignation letters personally to the Speaker and the resignations were voluntary and not under any coercion. Therefore, the resignations ought to have been accepted.
The Speaker acknowledged the receipt of 139 resignations which had to be instantly accepted and announced in the House. In all, more than 200 MLAs had resigned. However, the Speaker neither accepted nor sent the same to the Secretariat of the Legislature. He kept them in his drawer.
The petitioner sent a memorandum by e-mail to the Governor on November 22, 2009. He also wrote an ‘Open Letter’ but nothing happened, he said. The arbitrary silence of the Speaker had resulted in gross violation of Articles 14, 19 (a) and 190 of the Constitution and the Rules of the House, the petitioner felt.
With such averments, the petitioner sought a declaration from the apex court declaring the members of the AP Legislative Assembly who had resigned on December 12, 2009, deemed to have been accepted and their seats shall have become vacant.