Telangana HC moved over merger of CLP members with TRS 

Despite the petition in the TS High Court, the Speaker proceeded with the merger without giving notice to the Telangana Congress.
Telangana CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu
Telangana CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu

HYDERABAD: In a significant development regarding the merger of Congress legislature party members with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi legislature party, the State Congress leadership on Monday moved the High Court with a plea to suspend the bulletin on the merger issued by the Telangana State legislature secretary at the behest of the Assembly speaker.

The Congress leaders sought for the merger to be deemed illegal, ultra vires to the provisions of the X Schedule, and violative of Article 324 of the Constitution.

Advocate Ravi Shankar Jandhyala, appearing for the petitioners, MLA Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu and PCC president and MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy, requested the division bench of Acting Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akther to hear the petition urgently.

The bench said it would hear the petition on Tuesday.

Bhatti and Uttam, in their writ petition, contended that declaring the merger of a political party/legislature party with another political party was predominantly a statutory duty conferred on the ECI under the Representation of People’s Act and not on the Assembly Speaker.

However, the bulletin impugned was issued at the behest of the Speaker based on a letter from the 12 MLAs, they pointed out, and urged the court to declare that the Speaker has exceeded the constitutional powers vested in him and committed jurisdictional illegality.

The petitioners further said the 12 MLAs had well in advance announced that they were going to join TRS, and based on which, the latter gave them the responsibility of shouldering the local body elections.

This, they said, indicated said MLAs were predetermined to join the ruling party.

Referring to the disqualification petition pending before the Speaker, the petitioners pointed out that the Speaker has failed to disqualify the said MLAs for indulging in anti-party activities.

In spite of this, the Speaker proceeded with the merger without giving notice to the state Congress.

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