In a big relief to two Telangana Congress MLAs – Komatireddy Venkat Reddy from Nalgonda and S A Sampath Kumar from Alampur, a division bench of the Hyderabad high court on Monday dismissed a review petition of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi on their expulsion from the state assembly for their alleged misconduct in the House.
The division bench comprising acting chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice K Vijayalakshmi upheld the verdict given by the single judge on April 17 revoking the expulsion of the two Congress MLAs.
The two MLAs were expelled for the rest of their term of the assembly for their alleged unruly behaviour in the House, when Governor E S L Narasimhan was addressing the joint session of the assembly and council on May 12.
The TRS produced a video clipping in which Venkat Reddy was seen throwing headphones at the podium and alleged that it had hit Legislative Council Speaker K Swamy Goud, sitting beside the Governor, resulting in an injury to his eye.
The two MLAs subsequently moved the high court, challenging the expulsion. Venkat Reddy argued that he had not intentionally thrown the headphone at the podium and that it had not hit the Legislative Council chairman.
“There are no visuals to prove that the headphone had indeed hit Swamy Goud’s eye,” he argued.
With the government and the state assembly failing to produce any evidence to substantiate their allegations, the single judge of the high court revoked their suspension.
However, as many as 12 TRS MLAs moved a review petition in the high court stating that the two Congress MLAs had damaged the dignity and decorum of the House and hence, the House had passed a unanimous resolution expelling the duo for the rest of their tenure.
Supreme Court senior counsel and Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi who argued on behalf of Venkat Reddy and Sampath Kumar asserted that a group of TRS MLAs had no authority challenge the court verdict, as only the assembly speaker or the secretary had the right to appeal.
The division bench agreed with his argument and dismissed the TRS petition.
