Hyderabad: The Telangana cabinet passed a resolution to nominate Telangana Jana Samithi leader Professor Kodandaram and news editor of the Urdu newspaper, The Siasat Daily, Amer Ali Khan for the MLC posts under the Governor’s quota on Tuesday, March 12.
This comes after the Telangana High Court quashed the nomination of the duo last week.
The HC’s order was in response to pleas by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders challenging Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan’s action in rejecting their nomination during the Legislative Council.
The nomination of the BRS leaders Dasoju Sravan Kumar and Satyanarayana as MLCs was recommended by the previous Telangana government of BRS while Kodandaram and Amer Ali Khan were nominated after the Congress party came to power.
The recommendation passed by the then state Cabinet in July last year was sent to the Governor. However, she rejected the nominations on September 19 on the ground that the two were “politically aligned persons”.
What Telangana HC said on quashing nominations of MLCs
Pronouncing the orders on the petition of Sravan Kumar and Satyanarayana challenging Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan’s action in rejecting their nomination to the Legislative Council, the court held that the Governor is bound by the advice of the Cabinet.
The court noted that the Governor has the power to remit the matter to the Council of Ministers either to furnish requisite documents/information or for reconsideration of the recommendation made by the Council of Ministers.
A bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Anil Kumar Jukanti, which had reserved its orders on the petitions of Dasoju Sravan Kumar and Satyanarayana on February 15, pronounced the same on Thursday.
Following the change of guards in the state after the defeat of BRS in Assembly elections, the BRS leaders filed petitions challenging the Governor’s action.
The petitioners contended that the decision taken by the Governor to reject the recommendations of the Council of Ministers was due to “lack of personal satisfaction” and not due to any ambiguity in the recommendation itself, which is arbitrary and therefore illegal.
The petitioners called “the order passed by the Governor as mala fide, arbitrary, unconstitutional and in excess of her jurisdiction.
The Governor on January 27 nominated Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) president M. Kodandaram and journalist Amer Ali Khan as members of Telangana Legislative Council.
Gazette notifications in this regard were also issued.
On the petitions of Sravan Kumar and Satyanarayana, the High Court on January 30 had stayed the swearing-in of Kodandaram and Amer Ali Khan as members of Telangana Legislative Council.
