High Court issues notices to 22 defected YSRCP MLAs 

Hyderabad: The High Court at Hyderabad on Tuesday issued notices to the 22 MLAs who defected to TDP after winning the elections on YSRCP ticket and to AP Law and Legislative Department and Secretary of AP Assembly in the public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed seeking MLAs disqualification. It has directed them to file counter affidavits.

The division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K Vijayalakshmi gave this direction while hearing the PIL filed by former MLA from Palamaneru constituency in Prakasam district A Venkata Rambabu.

Senior counsel C V Mohan Reddy, appearing for the petitioner, complained that the Speaker of the Assembly was not acting on the complaints regarding these defections. Also, petitions filed in the High Court against the defectors were also not coming up for hearing after first hearing. The defectors after trampling the Constitution are happily continuing their activity, he said.

The bench commented that there are over 3.25 lakh cases pending in the High Court and it is not possible to hear every matter as a fresh case. For the advocates, their case is important but the difficulty must also be kept in mind. It issued notices to respondents and adjourned the case by two weeks.