HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday issued notices to principal secretary to Law and Legislative Department of AP, Assembly Secretary and MLAs concerned for filing their counter affidavits in a PIL seeking action on the complaints given against the MLAs for defecting into ruling TDP from opposition YSR Congress Party.
The bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K Vijaya Lakshmi was dealing with a PIL filed by YSR Congress MLAs Alla Ramakrishna Reddy and Palaparthi David Raju seeking to declare the respondent YSR Congress MLAs and MPs who have joined the ruling party as ‘ineligible’. The PIL also sought cancellation of the posts of those who were given cabinet berths after switching their loyalty to the ruling party.They sought their disqualification under the Anti Defection Law.
As many as three MPs and 22 MLAs who won on the YSRC ticket in 2014 election have joined the ruling TDP between March 1, 2016 and November 27, 2017, and of them four MLAs have become state ministers.
Ministers N Amarnath Reddy, C Adinarayana Reddy, Venkata Sujaya Krishna Ranga Rao and Bhuma Akhila Priya and MLAs Jaleel Khan, T Jaya Ramulu, 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, SV Mohan Reddy, Giddi Eshwari and V Rajeshwari are among those named as respondents. MPs SPY Reddy, Kothapalli Geetha and Butta Renuka were also named as respondents.
Petitioners’ counsel Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy told the court that some of the respondent MLAs have openly said that the ruling party leaders had offered money and posts to them for switching their loyalty to the ruling TDP.Intervening, the bench asked the counsel whether their party (YSRC) had indulged in defections in the past.
In reply, the counsel said that the YSRC which had won good number of seats in the 2014 elections, had never indulged or encouraged such activities. In fact, one public representative, Shilpa Chakrapani Reddy, had switched his loyalty from the TDP to the YSRC only after resigning to the post concerned, he noted. He pointed out that the Assembly Speaker had so far not responded to the complaints given by the YSRC leaders on the defection of YSRC MLAs.
AP advocate general Dammalapati Srinivas, appearing for the Law and Legislative Department, brought to the notice of the court that three MPs were also named as the respondents in the present case. The bench then directed the petitioners’ counsel to remove the MPs names from the main petition and file a separate petition in respect of the defected MPs.
Acting CJ recused from case
Dealing with another petition, the Acting CJ recused to hear the case filed by V Satish Kumar from West Godavari district against Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on the ground that he had in the past appeared for Naidu in a case, and directed the registry to post the case to another bench. The advocate general said that Naidu was not a respondent in the case. Petitioner Satish Kumar sought action against Naidu for allegedly encouraging defections to his party from YSRC.