Congress seeks ouster of six TRS MLAs

Hyderabad: Mohammed Ali Shabbir, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council, on Thursday urged Governor ESL Narasimhan to refer the cases of six Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLAs for holding ‘office of profit‘ to Election Commission as a violation of sections of Articles 190,191 and 192 on the lines of their counterparts in Delhi and Sikkim.

Speaking to reporters at Raj Bhavan after submitting a memorandum along with Congress leader and MLA A Revanth Reddy to the Governor, seeking their disqualification at the earliest, the LOP asked the Governor to uphold the Constitution and protect the high standards of Indian democracy by endorsing the petition for disqualification of MLAs who were holding offices of profit in Telangana in total violation of moral values.  

He said after the ECI had recommended disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs of Delhi on similar clauses, the Sikkim Governor N Shrinivas Patil also referred the case of 14 SDF MLAs to the ECI for necessary action.

The six TRS MLAs who are holding the offices of profits are Parliamentary Secretaries D Vinay Bhaskar, Jalagam Venkat Rao, V Srinivas Goud, G Kishore Kumar, V Satish Kumar and Kova Laxmi. They had been enjoying huge salaries and all the benefits of Cabinet rank in total violation of Articles 190, 191, 192 and Article 102(1) (a), 103 of the Constitution, he said. 

He said the appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries was made on December 29, 2014 and though it was stayed by the AP High Court on May 1, 2015, all the six MLAs continued to enjoy the status of Cabinet Minister, defeating the very purpose of the 91st Amendment.  “It is a backdoor entry and is in willful disobedience of the mandate of law as there is no legal power vested in the government”. 

They said in the memorandum that the Governor should refer this application forthwith without adopting any dilatory tactics to favor the ruling party to the Election Commission and the EC shall forthwith conduct an inquiry and disqualify the MLAs. 

They also cautioned that any deviation from the Constitutional duty and responsibility by any constitutional authority was amenable to the revisional jurisdiction of the High Court as well as the Supreme Court as held in SR Bommai’s case.