Telangana MLAs contempt case: Notice issued Law & Legislature Secretaries, Speaker asked to show cause

The High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad today issued formal notices to the Telangana Legislative Assembly Secretary and the Law Secretary for their “deliberate and willful disobedience” of an order of the Court.

The Court also asked the Speaker of the House to show cause as to why he should not be impleaded in the contempt plea filed by two Congress MLAs.

Justice B Siva Sankara Rao also took note of the fact that Senior Counsel  Vedula Venkataramana, who represented the two bureaucrats, had at no point made any mention of appealing the order which had been “flouted in a brazen manner”.

On April 17 this year, Justice Rao had ruled that the expulsion of Telangana Congress MLAs Komatireddy Venkata Reddy and SA Sampath Kumar by the house was illegal. The Speaker of the Assembly was notified of the order.

The order was subsequently challenged by 12 legislators of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), but in June, a Division Bench struck down the appeal on the ground that the appellants did not constitute necessary parties.

The order of the Court was not implemented, and subsequently, contempt proceedings were initiated after the stipulated period within which appeals are to be filed lapsed.

The Law and Legislature Secretaries filed an appeal last week, 61 days after the expiration of the prescribed time limit. This, after having participated in contempt proceedings all along.

They will now have to appear in person on September 17. The Court made it clear that it had not decided anything on merits, and that any defence the two sought to rely upon, would be heard fully.

In a separate but related order, the Director General of Police, Telangana and the Superintendents of Police of the Nalgonda and Jogulamba districts from which the two MLAs hail, have been impleaded as parties.

This order stemmed from the officers’ failure to restore all official privileges that the reinstated legislators were entitled to, more specifically, the restoration of personal security cover. It was held that the order was unequivocally clear on this aspect, and that the argument that a denotification of the expulsion order had not been issued, would cut no ice with the Court.

Justice Rao observed that restraint had been exercised in deciding not to implead the Speaker of the House. However, the Speaker has been asked to show cause as to why he should not be impleaded as a party.

The matter has been posted to August, 28.