Telangana High Court on Monday left it to the discretion of Assembly Speaker to take a call on revoking suspension of the three BJP MLAs, noting that the latter should be given an opportunity to present their views before the Speaker.
A bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and A. Venkateshwara Reddy, disposing of a writ appeal filed by the BJP legislators, said the Speaker should take an appropriate decision regarding the legislators’ suspension and on allowing them to participate on the last day of the ongoing Assembly budget session on Tuesday. The bench was hearing a writ appeal filed by BJP MLAs M. Raghunandan Rao, E. Rajender and T. Raja Singh challenging the order of a single challenge not to interfere with the Speaker’s decision of suspending them for the entire period of ongoing budget session.
Disposing of the appeal petition, the bench directed the three MLAs to appear before Legislature Secretary with the bench’s order copy. After they present themselves before the Legislature Secretary, the Speaker should give them an audience before commencement of the Assembly proceedings on Tuesday as it was the last day of the budget session, the bench said.
The bench hoped that the Speaker would ‘rise to the occasion as is expected of him being a high constitutional functionary and guardian of the House above partisan politics’. It also hoped that the Speaker would ‘do all that is necessary to uphold the cause of justice and parliamentary democracy’. Pronouncing verdict in the appeal plea, the bench observed that the Supreme Court in its verdict in Raja Rampal case gave power to the courts to interfere in Assembly proceedings. But the courts cannot direct the Assembly Speaker to take a decision, the bench said.
Earlier in the day the bench directed the HC Registrar-Judicial to serve notices in the matter to the Assembly Secretary. The bench also instructed the Hyderabad Police Commissioner to ensure the notices were served on the Assembly Secretary.
