HYDERABAD:Objecting to the filing of an appeal against a single judge's order by some ruling party legislators, Supreme Court senior counsel Abhishek Singhvi told the High Court here on Monday that it was for the Assembly secretary, on behalf of the speaker, to file an appeal if they had any objection to the single judge's order.
"Who authorised them (TRS MLAs) to file an appeal against the single judge's order? Some other MLAs might come in favour of the single judge's order. The Constitution recognises only the entire bunch of legislators in the House and not a group or sub-group of the House. Only 12 MLAs (TRS) out of 120 members of the House have come up with an appeal. That means MLAs belonging to other parties may have differed with them," he noted.
The senior counsel, who was appearing for the two expelled Congress MLAs, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and SA Sampath Kumar, made this submission before a division bench of acting chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice K Vijaya Lakshmi. The bench was hearing arguments on maintainability of the appeal filed by TRS MLAs Vemula Prashanth Reddy and 11 others challenging the order of a single judge the expulsion of two Congress legislators by the TS Legislative Assembly was invalid on the ground that the principles of natural justice were not followed. The judge had quashed the gazette notification issued by the state government notifying vacancy for Nalgonda and Alampur (SC) Assembly constituencies represented by Komatireddy and Sampath respectively.
Referring to the case of Alagapuram R Mohan Raj and others vs Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, Singhvi said that prior to suspension of some MLAs from the Tamil Nadu Assembly, the case was first referred to the privileges committee which held an enquiry. After going through the records including the video footage, the committee had quashed the entire suspension and the MLAs concerned were given a chance to state their stand. In the present case, both Komatireddy and Sampath were expelled from the House by denying them the chance of principles of natural justice. "No procedure was followed and the principles of natural justice were violated. Besides, no opportunity of hearing was given and no video footage was placed before the court. On the spot, the two MLAs were expelled by a mere resolution of the House. Their expulsion is irrational", Singhvi pointed out.
While terming the action of the Assembly and the State government as immoral in respect of video footage issue of March 12 incident of throwing earphone during the governor's address in the House, Singhvi said advocate-general D Prakash Reddy, before resigning, had assured the court that the state would submit the original video footage in a sealed cover but it was not submitted till date. On this aspect, the single judge drew negative inference and it was recorded in the order. "Now the above TRS MLAs have submitted the video footage before the court which was not certified by the Assembly secretary," he added.
The bench made it clear that it did not commence hearing on the merits of the main case and said the petitioners had earlier admitted to throwing earphone. It posted the matter to Wednesday for reply arguments by Supreme Court senior counsel CS Vaidyanathan on behalf of the appellants (12 TRS MLAs).
15 days imprisonment for PJTSAU registrar
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Monday sentenced S Sudheer Kumar, registrar of Prof Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, to 15 days imprisonment in a contempt case. Justice A Ramalingeswara Rao was allowing the contempt case filed by M Venkanna, Agricultural Extension Officer, seeking action against the varsity authorities for wilful disobedience in implementing the earlier order of the court. In November last year, the court directed the varsity to provide 19 seats to Agriculture extension officers (AEOs) of state government in B.Sc Agriculture course for 2017-18 academic year. When the varsity failed to provide the seats for the said academic year, the above contempt case was filed.
Arguments
Singhvi referred to the case of Alagapuram R Mohan Raj and others vs Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
Prior to suspension of some MLAs from the TN Assembly, the case was first referred to the Privilege committee and the latter held an enquiry. MLAs concerned were given a chance to submit their stand
In the present case, both Komatireddy and Sampath were expelled from the House by denying the chance of principles of natural justice
The MLAs would permanently lose their rights in the House and it leads to fresh mandate and huge expenditure