HC throws out appeal by TRS

The court that the power and privilege to expel a member from the House was conferred only on the Assembly under Article 194 (3) of the Constitution

In a major setback to the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), the Hyderabad High Court on Monday declared that the appeal moved by TRS MLAs challenging the order of a single judge, who had set aside the expulsion of two Congress MLAs from the Assembly, is not maintainable.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K Vijaya Lakshmi while dismissing an appeal by Vemula Prashanth Reddy and 11 other TRS MLAs, held that “it is only the State Legislature which can prefer an appeal, if it is aggrieved by the order of the Single Judge interdicting its decision to expel the two MLAs.”

It was also held that the power and privilege to expel a member from the House was conferred only on the Assembly under Article 194 (3) of the Constitution which was expressed by the collective will of the members of the Legislature passing a resolution in this regard. It said the power and privilege, of the Assembly as a Constitutional institution expressed through a resolution passed by all the members of the House present and voting, was not conferred on any individual member or a group of members of the Assembly.

A single judge on April 17, 2018 allowed the petition by expelled Congress MLAs Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S A Sampath Kumar by setting aside the resolution of the Telangana Assembly expelling them from the House and the consequent notifications declaring the two legislative assembly constituencies vacant.

The bench observed that “the possibility of the appellant MLAs being remotely or indirectly affected by the order under appeal, as they had voted in favour of the resolution passed by the House, would not justify an appeal being entertained at their behest."