HYDERABAD: Another PIL was filed in the Hyderabad High Court questioning the action of the State Governor, vide GO 46 dated September 6, 2018, dissolving the first Legislative Assembly of Telangana State on the advice of council of ministers. The decision of K Chandrasekhar Rao, caretaker Chief Minister, to dissolve the Assembly and the day he chose to take such a decision were all based on superstition and on the advice of numerologists and astrologers, and absolutely devoid of any logic or reason, the PIL remarked.
Petitioners Komireddy Ramchander Rao and his wife Saroja Devi, both advocates from Hyderabad, submitted that the decision to dissolve the Assembly is the personal decision of KCR and he has not sought the opinion of the Legislative Assembly before taking the said decision.
Besides, it was also not a collective decision of the cabinet which was convened on September 6 as a formality to just put a seal of approval to the ‘unilateral decision’ that had already been taken by KCR, who is so superstitious that he thinks that number six brings good luck to him.
He had even declared 105 tickets to his party candidates. In fact, the Governor has discretion when the dissolution should take place and can be exercised on the basis of sound constitutional principles. In 2003, the then State Governor refused the recommendation of dissolving the Uttar Pradesh State Assembly by the council of ministers, the petitioners noted.
The petitioners’ further submitted that the Governor was duty bound to advice the chief minister to reconsider his decision to tender his resignation and seek dissolution of the Assembly since Lok Sabha elections were scheduled in May 2019.
Because of the said decision, the election commission was made to finalise the electoral list in a hurry by advancing the date for final publication of electoral roll from January 4, 2019 to October 10, 2018. There was scope that many deserving and eligible voters are likely to be omitted in the voters’ list. If the chief minister was not amenable to reason, then the Government was duty bound to recommend the President’s Rule. The Governor’s decision to approve the dissolution of Assembly is wholly undemocratic, they added and urged the court to suspend operation of the impugned GO.
The caretaker CM was named as one of the respondents in his individual capacity. State chief secretary, principal secretary to Governor, secretary to Election Commission of India, secretary to State election commission, State chief electoral officer and secretary to TS legislature secretariat were named as the respondents. The matter will come up for hearing before a division bench comprising Chief Jus. TBN Radhakrishnan and Jus. SV Bhatt on Wednesday.