Justice Shameem Akther of the High Court on Wednesday issued notices to Telangana Legislature Secretary in a writ petition filed by three BJP MLAs challenging their suspension from ongoing Assembly budget session.
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The judge directed the Secretary to explain reasons for the suspension of three MLAs by Thursday (today). The matter would be heard again today. The plea was filed by BJP legislators M. Raghunandan Rao, E. Rajender and T. Raja Singh, who were suspended for the entire period of ongoing Telangana Assembly budget session on the day of presentation of budget.
Though the judge issued notices to the Secretary, no specific direction was given to furnish a copy of the resolution of suspension of the MLAs as sought by the petitioners. Senior counsel Desai Prakash Reddy appearing for the suspended MLAs said the Secretary should furnish copy of the resolution of the suspension.
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When the judge sought to know how the petitioners moved the court without having the copy of the resolution, Mr. Prakash Reddy said newspaper clippings explaining the suspension of the MLAs from the Assembly were presented to the court. He also told the court that some regional TV news channels had telecast proceedings of the budget presentation. Stating that a video footage telecast by a news channel was also furnished, the senior counsel requested the judge to examine it.
The video footage would confirm that the three MLAs were suspended without any valid reason, he argued. He contended that the legislators were suspended within 15 to 20 minutes of the session on the budget presentation day. This was in complete violation of the rules, he told the court.
There is a provision in the law to reinstate a suspended member of the Assembly if another member of the same party moves such resolution . But in this instance, all three BJP MLAs were suspended, he said. It was mandatory for the Speaker to name a MLA before moving a motion for suspension.
But the Minister for Animal Husbandry moved the motion for suspension which amounted to gross violation of rules, the lawyer said. Advocate General B.S. Prasad, stating that authenticity of the video footage presented by petitioners needs to be verified, said the courts cannot interfere with the Assembly proceedings.