Congress netas meet Guv, urge him to act fast

​Hyderabad: The Congress leaders on Monday requested Governor E S L Narasimhan to direct the State government and the Assembly to restore all benefits and privileges available to Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S A Sampath Kumar as sitting MLAs to ‘uphold the rule of law and the judgment of High Court in true letter and spirit.’

A delegation comprising of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Congress Parliamentary Party (CLP) leader K Jana Reddy and others met the Governor at Raj Bhavan on Monday. The leaders informed that Venkat Reddy and Sampath Kumar were expelled from the Assembly by ‘an illegal and unconstitutional resolution’ by the House due to ‘an erroneous view of fact and law’ on March 13 and later declared the vacancy of seats on the same day by duly notifying the Election Commission of India.

The Congress leaders recalled that acting on a writ petition filed by the two MLAs, the High Court had set aside the expulsion order passed by the Assembly and also issued a notification leading to automatic restoration and revival of the membership of Venkat Reddy and Sampath Kumar.

The TPCC chief said though 20 days had elapsed from the date of delivery of the judgement, neither the State government nor the Assembly preferred any appeal against the said judgement, thereby allowing the judgement of the single judge to attain finality. The Judge had categorically held that the expulsion proceedings were set aside and the petitioners' membership in the Assembly was automatically restored and revived. The court also further upheld the continuance of our MLAs in the Assembly for the remaining tenure as duly elected MLAs for all practical purposes.

“In spite of specific observation by the court that our leaders membership has been automatically restored and revived and the order of continuance of their membership for the remaining tenure as duly elected MLAs for all practical purposes, the Assembly website is still not showing our members as MLAs and the protocol and privileges have not been extended to them so far and the Chief Secretary of the State and the DGP and the Principal Secretary, Law and Legislature have not extended the protocol and privileges that are available to sitting MLAs which reflects the autocratic behavior of the State government," said Uttam Kumar Reddy.

Reddy said the State government's hesitance to release the video footage of the alleged attack on Council Chairman Swamy Goud in public domain or submit the same in High Court clearly showed that Congress MLAs did nothing wrong. The expulsion of two MLAs and suspension of remaining legislators for the entire session was part of the TRS government's conspiracy to pass the budget without any discussion, he alleged.

Replying to a question, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the court's interference would be needed if legislature adopted unconstitutional and undemocratic means to implement wrong decisions. "The Governor as the head of the State as well as head of the legislature has all the powers to direct the State being represented by the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police to uphold the rule of law and to implement the judgements of courts which are binding on the executive and legislative and governmental authorities,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

Leader of Opposition in the Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir, TPCC working president Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, MLAs T Jeevan Reddy, Padmavathi Reddy, Vamshichand Reddy, Donthi Madhava Reddy, MLC Santosh Kumar and others met the Governor at the Raj Bhavan on Monday. Meanwhile, another delegation submitted a separate memorandum to Chief Secretary S K Joshi on the issue.