HYDERABAD: Senior Congress leader and MLC Mohd Ali Shabbir on Monday moved the Hyderabad High Court challenging the recent decision of the Telangana State Legislative Council chairman for merger of Congress Legislature Party in the council with the TRS Legislature Party and allotting seats to the CLP Council members along with TRSLP members, and issuance of bulletin by the legislature secretary for the purpose.
The decision taken by the legislature secretary and council chairman was contrary to the Supreme Court judgment in Rajindra Singh Rana vs Swami Prasad Mourya case, he noted.
Shabbir Ali, in his petition, stated that after coming to know about the merger issue, he as the leader of Opposition in the Council along with the TPCC president had given a representation to the council chairman opposing the move saying that it was against the Constitution.
Despite receiving the representation and in spite of pendency of disqualification petitions (against MLCs MS Prabhakar Rao, K Damodar Reddy, T Santosh Kumar and A Lalitha) before the chairman, the latter issued orders merging the CLP with TRSLP in terms of Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, and allotted seats in the House accordingly. In fact, merger of a political party/ legislature party with another political party was predominantly a statutory duty conferred on the Election Commission of India and not a legislative function of the Council chairman, he contended. The matter is expected to come up for hearing on Wednesday.