HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Monday issued notices to 20 YSRC MLAs, who crossed over to TDP, seeking their response on maintainability of the writ petitions that were filed seeking their disqualification.
The bench comprising ACJ Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice A Shankar Narayana was passing this order in petitions filed separately by YSRC leaders Y Visweswar Reddy, B Rajendranath Reddy, D Thippa Reddy and Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy seeking disqualification of their party MLAs who joined the ruling Telugu Desam.
The petitioners submitted to the court that they complained to the Assembly Speaker seeking disqualification of Bhuma Nagi Reddy, Jaleel Khan, C Adinarayana Reddy, T Jaya Ramulu, R V S Krishna Ranga Rao, P Sunil Kumar, A Chand Basha, Jyothula Nehru, M Mani Gandhi, K Sarveswar Rao, P David Raju, Budda Rajasekhar Reddy, Gottipati Ravi Kumar, K Venkata Ramana, V Subba Rao, P Rama Rao, M Ashok Reddy, Amarnath Reddy, SV Mohan Reddy and Bhuma Akhila Priya under the Anti-Defection Law as they have crossed over to the ruling TDP. They said that the Speaker was refusing to take up their complaints.
Senior counsel S Niranjan Reddy, appearing for the petitioners, brought to the notice of the court that the Supreme Court had recently referred similar petitions to a Constitution bench to get clarity on issues whether the Assembly Speaker can keep the complaints seeking disqualification under Anti-Defection Law for a longer time and the powers vested in him. In this situation there was no need to stop hearing the present case, he argued.
AP advocate general Dammalapati Srinivas contended that the petitions filed are not maintainable as they were filed even before a decision was taken by the Speaker.