The Supreme Court on Saturday posted the hearing on a special leave petition challenging the continuance of Andra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on the ground that his Congress government has “lost” majority in the House after his party’s 79 legislators resigned on the twin issue of Telangana and support to YSR Congress to December 9 .
The SLP, filed by S Venu Gopala Chary, a Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLA from Adilabad, has challenged the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s November 14 order dismissing his petition on the issue.
A three-judge bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari, T S Thakur and Deepak Mishra before whom the SLP was mentioned by counsel S Ramchandra Rao and Sateesh Galla, said there was no urgency involved in the issue and it would take up the matter for hearing on December 9.
Mr. Chary’s petition has urged the apex court to issue a writ of quo warranto to the Chief Minister who, according to the petition, has lost majority in the 294-member assembly in view of the spate of resignations over Telangana issue and another faction joining the rebel YSR Congress headed by Y Jagan Mohan Reddy, son of late Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.
Quo warranto is issued by a high court or the Supreme Court questioning the authority under which a person is holding a particular Constitutional or statutory post.
According to the petition as on October 30, resignation of 79 MLAs from the Assembly are pending with the Speaker, besides disqualification petitions against seven MLAs [Congress-4, TDP-2, PRP 1].
The petition said though Mr. Kiran Kumar Reddy has lost majority in the House, the principal opposition Telugu Desam Party was not willing to move any no-confidence motion and TRS on its own cannot muster the requisite number to move the motion.
“Though said disqualification petitions and the resignations are pending for the last several months, Hon’ble Speaker of the AP State Legislative Assembly did not take any decision so far. It is strange to note that either the ruling Congress party or main opposition party TDP or PRP are not even requesting the Hon’ble Speaker to take action on those petitions/ resignations.
“It is further strange to note that the MLAs who resigned are insisting for acceptance of their resignations but the Hon’ble Speaker did not take any action on those resignations and disqualification petitions. In fact, the petitioner also submitted resignation to the Hon’ble Speaker but the same is still pending, ” the petition stated. According to the petitioner, to have the majority in the Assembly, Congress Party should have the support of 147 MLAs but as of now, it has the support of only 143 MLAs.
"Thus, the ruling Congress party has no majority in the Legislative Assembly. Therefore, the Chief Minister and his government have no right to continue in the office," the petition claimed.
It was submitted that the High Court failed to consider the settled constitutional principle that if the leader of the legislative party lost the legislative majority, the government and consequently the Chief Minister have lost the right to hold the office.
"The High Court came to a perverse conclusion on the basis of a presumption that the MLAs, who resigned from the primary membership of Congress party and joined YSR Congress Party headed by Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, still support the State government," the petition added.
