Telangana HC suggests suspended BJP MLAs to meet Speaker

Hyderabad, March 14:  The Telangana High Court on Monday suggested three BJP MLAs, who were suspended from state Assembly last week, meet the Speaker.

Hearing a petition by the MLAs challenging their suspension, a division bench suggested that they meet the Speaker and hoped that he would take an appropriate decision.

The suggestion came when counsel of the three legislators pleaded that the court pass an order directing the Speaker to allow them to attend the session from Tuesday.

The court observed that the final decision on revoking the suspension of the MLAs has to be taken by the Speaker. It directed that the Legislature Secretary take the responsibility of facilitating a meeting of the suspended MLAs with Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy.

Raghunandan Rao, Eatala Rajender, and T. Raja Singh filed a petition before the division bench after a single judge refused to stay the suspension from the House for the entire business session.

Earlier in the day, on the direction of the court, the judicial registrar of the court went to the Assembly and served the notice personally on Legislature Secretary Narasimha Charyulu. The court had also directed the city Police Commissioner to ensure that registrar get access to the Assembly building and personally serve the notice.

The division bench gave the direction after counsel of the BJP MLAs brought to its notice that a notice earlier ordered by a single judge could not be served on the Legislature Secretary.

All three MLAs of BJP were suspended from the Assembly for the entire session by the Speaker on March 7.

Protesting over the government's move to commence the budget session without the Governor's address, the BJP legislators tried to disrupt the proceedings.

On a resolution moved by the government, the Speaker announced their suspension for the entire session.

The MLAs argued that their suspension was against the rules of the Legislative Assembly and the Constitution.