HYDERABAD: In a relief to YSRC legislator RK Roja, the Hyderabad HC on Thursday granted interim stay on the operation of a resolution passed by AP State Assembly suspending her from the House for a period of one year, paving way for the actress-turned-politician to attend the ongoing Budget session of AP Legislative Assembly. The Court, however, made it clear that the stay order will not preclude the House from taking any appropriate action pursuant to the pending privilege proceedings.
It may be mentioned here that the AP Assembly had unanimously passed a resolution to suspend Roja, MLA representing Nagari segment in Chittoor, on Dec 18, 2015 for obstructing the proceedings of the House and also allegedly making derogatory remarks against CM N Chandrababu Naidu.
Roja initially approached HC challenging her suspension and later moved the SC. The Apex Court remanded back the matter to the High Court with a direction to take up the hearing in view of urgency involved. Accordingly, the matter was posted before Justice A Ramalingeswara Rao for hearing.
On Thursday, the judge granted an interim order in favour of the petitioner MLA by observing that “since this court came to the prima facie conclusion that the motion carried out was contrary to Rule 340 of the Rules of the House, this Court has to consider the balance of convenience in the instant case.”
The Judge, in his verdict, mentioned that the additional advocate general of AP had submitted that the suspension was taken in exercise of substantive powers conferred under Article 194(3) of the Constitution and the invocation of Rule 340 of the Rules in the motion was a mistake.
“The petitioner is an elected member of the Assembly and in normal course she is entitled to participate in the proceedings. If the suspension is continued during pendency of the petition, the right of participation would be affected and cannot be restored in the event of her success. Hence, there shall be an interim suspension of the motion, pending disposal of the petition”, the judge observed.
As per the SC judgment in Raja Ram Pal’s case, the Judicature is not prevented from scrutinising the validity of the action of legislature trespassing on the fundamental rights conferred on citizens.
He referred to many SC cases and drew a line between substantial illegality and irregularity mentioned in Article 212 of Constitution.
The judge while granting the interim order, made it clear that this order was not an endorsement of the conduct of the petitioner on Dec 18, 2015 in the House or against the authority of the Speaker to take action against the erring member, but only a prima facie expression of the legality of the motion passed on the day. This order will not preclude the House from taking any appropriate action pursuant to the pending privilege proceedings, the judge noted.
Justice Ramalingeswara Rao observed the issues with regard to application of principles of natural justice, whether the House possesses power to suspend a member dehors the Rule made by it etc., have to be considered in detail in the petition and posted the matter after four weeks for hearing.
AP Thinks ‘Technical Flaw’ Led to high court Stay
Hyderabad: The AP government, which is of the view that a “technical mistake” committed in invoking appropriate rules while suspending YSRC MLA RK Roja from the State Assembly for one year provided ground for HC to stay her suspension, has decided to challenge the single judge decision before a division bench. The government reportedly asked in charge secretary of the Assembly to move an appeal in the court challenging its interim order, quoting Article 212 of the Constitution. “As per Art 212 of the Constitution, the authenticity and rationality of any proceedings in the Legislature of a state should not be questioned by the courts. Courts can’t challenge the decisions taken by law-making bodies. Hence, we have decided to go for appeal seeking review of the interim order,” TDP MLA Bonda Uma Maheswara Rao told reporters here. Meanwhile, CM N Chandrababu Naidu had a series of meetings with Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao and Legislative Affairs minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu separately to decide the government’s next course of action over the issue.