PIL dismissed on TRS resignations

Hyderabad, March 5: Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday dismissed aPublic Interest Litigation,stating that it will not intervene with discretionary powers of theSpeaker of the State Legislative Assembly.S Raju, resident of Bank Street in Koti area filed a petition seeking a direction from the court to AssemblySpeaker K.R. Suresh Reddy not to accept the resignation of the TRS MLAsand MLCs.The petitioner told the court that 16 MLAs and three MLCs of TRSsubmitted their resignation on Tuesdayto the Speaker and the Chairman of AP Legislative Council respectively.He submitted that TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao who was elected as MPfrom Karimnagarconstituency submitted his resignation along with three MPs of his partyon Monday and the LoksabhaSpeaker accepted their resignation within no time.The petitioner told the court that earlier also KCR resigned as MP only onthe ground that the then ministerchallenged him. He said that this time also his resignation was acceptedwithin no time and KCR was re -elected from the constituency in bye-election.He submitted that submitting of resignations and re-electing again inbye-elections, these leaders were not atall concerned about the burden on public exchequer due to theseresignations and bye-elections.He told the court that as per the Article 190(3)(b) it is obligatory onthe part of the Speaker to seekinformation and conduct enquiry to know whether the members voluntarilyresigned or were they compelledto submit their resignations because of their party decision.While dealing with the petition, a division bench comprising Chief JusticeA R Dave and Justice T ChSurya Rao asked the petitioner whether the Speaker has accepted theresignations.The petitioner replied that so far they have not been accepted.Ravishankar Jandhyala , counsel for the Legislative Assembly submitted thecourt that neither a person nora court can give a directive to the Speaker with regard to acceptance ofthe resignations. He said "it is theprerogative of the Speaker and he already had a first round ofconsultations with the members whosubmitted their resignations to know whether they have resigned with theirown will and consent."He urged the court to dismiss the petition as it seems not in the interestof the public.