HC sought to delete Governor's name from list of respondents

The Hyderabad High Court on Thursday directed the Registry to delete the name of Governor E.S.L Narasimhan from the list of respondents in a petition seeking to declare minister T. Srinivasa Yadav and Speaker Madhusudhan Chary ineligible to continue in their posts. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Thottathil Bhaskaran Nair Radhakrishnan and Justice Ramesh Ranganathan while dealing with the petition by practicing advocate G. Malleswara Rao asked counsel for the petitioner why the Governor was made party to the petition.

Mr Mallikarjuna Sharma, counsel for the petitioner, said the Registry should not have raised an objecti-on in making the Governor as a party as they had not prayed for any direction against the Governor. He said they would not have any objection if the court wanted to delete the name of the Governor. When the bench asked why the petitioner was seeking a direction to restrain the Speaker from his functions, counsel replied that if the Speaker would have taken action against the defected member, Mr Srinivas Yadav, he would not have been able to join the Cabinet.

Mr J. Ramachandra Rao, additional advocate general, told the bench that a similar petition by the same petitioner against an AP minister and the Speaker was dismissed by another bench of the High Court. He urged the court to grant time to place the copy of the judgement before the bench. Adjourning the case, the bench directed the Registry to delete the name of the Governor.