All the 12 TRS MLAs, who moved the Hyderabad High Court appealing against setting aside of expulsion of two Congress MLAs, were present in the Assembly when the resolution to expel the latter was passed on March 13.
This was submitted to the Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K. Vijaya Lakshmi by the counsel for 12 TRS MLAs, Vaidyanathan, on Friday. He continued with the arguments for the second consecutive day in the writ appeal challenging a single judge order that had set aside two Congress MLAs’ expulsion.
He maintained that barring some MLAs, majority members of the House were present when the resolution was passed to expel them. Citing Article 194 (4), the senior counsel said individual members of the House have separate rights. Contending that the right to expulsion was upheld by the Apex Court in some cases, he presented to the court that Raja Ram Pal case was different from the present one.
While the question of law in Raja Ram Pal case was related to incidents that had happened outside the House, the two Congress MLAs’ expulsion was different from it. They were suspended for their behaviour ‘inside the House’ that affected its dignity and decorum, he argued.
“TRS MLAs had presented four video clippings relating to the incident which were telecast by different TV news channels that day,” Mr. Vaidyanathan told the Bench. In the first three video footages, MLA Komatireddy Venkat Reddy was seen plucking and hurling earphone at the dais and in the fourth, MLA Sampath Kumar was shown indulging in near-similar act, the senior counsel said.
The counsel for the two MLAs, Jandhyala Ravi Shankar, recalled that his clients were not given copies of the House resolution and subsequent gazette notification of their expulsion.
When he said all the 12 TRS MLAs, who moved the appeal petition, were defectors, the acting Chief Justice said that was not the question of the law in the present case.
The matter was posted to Monday for further hearing.
