The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to both Telangana government and the state governor on a petition challenging the governor’s refusal to nominate Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders Dasoju Sravan and Kurra Satyanarayana as members of the state legislative council under the governor’s quota.
A SC bench of justice Vikram Nath and justice PB Varale sought the response from the state government and the Raj Bhavan secretary on the petition filed by Sravan and Satyanarayana, questioning the state government’s decision to appoint two other leaders – former Osmania University professor Prof M Kodandaram and senior journalist Amer Ali Khan as MLCs in their place.
Sravan and Satyanarayana also challenged the state high court’s order of March this year not to issue a direction to the governor for their appointment. Though the high court had quashed former governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan’s orders, rejecting their appointments, it had not issued any positive direction in their favour.
The high court in the same judgment had also quashed the recommendations made by the Congress government in January this year for appointment of M Kodandaram and Amer Ali Khan as MLCs.
Arguing on behalf of the BRS leaders, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said they were entitled to a mandamus against the governor’s refusal to appoint them to the state legislative council.
{{/usCountry}}Arguing on behalf of the BRS leaders, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said they were entitled to a mandamus against the governor’s refusal to appoint them to the state legislative council.
{{/usCountry}}The SC bench, however, said any appointment made would be a subject matter of this petition.
In August last year, the then BRS government led by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao recommended the names of Sravan and Satyanarayana for the MLC posts under governor’s quota. However, after sitting over the file for over a month, Tamilisai sent back the file in September, rejecting the nominations on the ground that they have political and corporate affiliations.
The two BRS leaders moved the high court in December, questioning the governor’s decision to reject their nominations for the MLC posts. The high court which heard their petitions, ordered a status quo and directed that the government and the governor come up with a “gentleman’s agreement”.
Meanwhile, the new Congress government led by A Revanth Reddy on January 25 recommended the names of Kodandaram and Amer Ali Khan and the governor issued another notification nominating them as MLCs under governor’s quota.
Sravan and Satyanarayana challenged the same in the high court, praying to suspend the notification and also implead the subsequent nominees. They contended that despite the orders of the high court to maintain the status quo based on a gentleman’s agreement, the governor nominated new candidates to fill up the post as MLCs.
The governor’s counsel argued that the new government rescinded the earlier order and made fresh recommendations.