HYDERABAD: In a new twist in the case of expulsion of Congress MLAs Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and SA Sampath Kumar from the state Assembly, a division bench of the High Court on Tuesday stayed for two months the implementation of the order of a single judge who had set aside the expulsion order of the Assembly and gazette notification of the vacancy of Nalgonda and Alampur (SC) seats. It also stayed further proceedings, including appearance, in the contempt case against the Assembly and law secretaries and posted the matter to September 25.
The bench of chief justice TBN Radhakrishnan and justice V Ramasubramanian was admitting the appeals filed by Assembly secretary V Narasimha Charyulu and law secretary V Niranjan Rao against the judge’s order. While condoning the 60-day delay in filing the appeals, the bench felt the need for a detailed hearing of the appeals.
On April 17, the judge ruled that the expulsion was invalid on the ground that the principles of natural justice were not followed. When the order was not implemented, the MLAs filed a contempt case against the two officials who later filed appeals against the judge’s order.
On Tuesday, former attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Assembly secretary, said the judge should not have banked on non-submission of the video footage of the Assembly incident for his order. On March 12, the Council chairman received an eye injury because of the petitioners’ unruly behaviour. They had not denied throwing the earphone but only sought video footage. About the delayed appeals, he said the officials thought they had no role to play regarding judicial review of the expulsions.
Asked if the court had jurisdiction, Rohatgi said it had but it also had limits. The single judge had crossed the ‘limits’ as the issue had to be resolved within the Assembly, he said and recalled the court’s non-intervention in Assembly decisions against Roja and Sudheer Kumar. Haren Ravel, appearing for law secretary, said the House and the speaker got power to act against unruly members.
Petitioners’ counsel Jandhyala Ravi Shankar said the cases of Roja and Sudheer Kumar were irrelevant here. The appellants filed the appeals only after being issued notices. Without stating the reasons for the delay in filing appeals, they were trying to mislead the court, he said and stressed that no opportunity was given to the petitioners before expelling them.