The court emphasized the need for a graded approach in the suspension of members from the legislative assembly, highlighting that such action should be necessary for the orderly conduct of the House's proceedings and should not deprive citizens of their right to participate in the legislative process.

JUDGMENT :

Ujjal Bhuyan, J.

Heard Mr. D. Prakash Reddy, learned Senior Counsel for the appellants; and Mr. B.S. Prasad, learned Advocate General for respondent No.2.

2. In so far respondents No.1 and 3 are concerned, when the matter was taken up in the morning session, we had issued notice to them to be served by the Registrar (Judicial-II) and to inform them that the appeal would be taken up at 4:00 p.m. today.

3. Registrar (Judicial-II) has submitted a report wherefrom we find that respondents No.1 and 3 have been served. However, when we commenced the proceedings at 4:00 p.m., there is no representation on behalf of respondents No.1 and 3.

4. This appeal is directed against the order dated 11.03.2022, passed by the learned Single Judge, in I.A.No.2 of 2022 in W.P.No.12352 of 2022 declining to grant interim relief to the writ petitioners (appellants herein).

5. Appellants before us are Members of Telangana Legislative Assembly belonging to the political party called Bharatiya Janata Party. They have filed the related writ petition alleging that they were suspended for the remaining period of the ongoing Assembly Session of the Telangana State Legislative Assembly. Prayer was made for a direction to respondent No.1 to allow the appellants to participate in the remainder of the ongoing Assembly Session of the Telangana State Legislative Assembly. An interlocutory application being I.A.No.1 of 2022 was also filed before the learned Single Judge to stay the operation of the action of respondent No.1 in suspending the appellants from attending the Telangana State Legislative Assembly for the remainder of the ongoing Session and to allow them to continue to participate in the said Session.

6. By the impugned order dated 11-03-2022, the said interim prayer has been turned down by the learned Single Judge. Challenging the same, the present writ appeal has been preferred by the writ petitioners/appellants.

7. From a perusal of the order dated 11.03.2022, we find that the present session of the Telangana State Legislative Assembly commenced its business from 11.30 a.m. on 07.03.2022. However, appellants were informed by notice dated 28.02.2022 issued by respondent No.3 that there would be no address to the Legislature by the Governor of the State of Telangana. According to the appellants, this was a gross violation of the constitutional scheme and to protest the above, appellants had entered the Assembly hall on 07.03.2022 wearing black coloured shawls as a sign of protest. After the National Anthem was played, appellants stood up at their allotted places and requested the Speaker to give them an audience before commencement of business, more particularly, on the issue relating to absence of address of the Governor. However, the request of the appellants was not heeded to and in the meanwhile, the Finance Minister of the State of Telangana was asked to present the budget for the financial year 2022-2023 whereafter, the Finance Minister commenced his budget speech. This led the appellants to continue requesting the Speaker to give them an audience. As that was not happening, appellant No.3 slowly proceeded towards the Speaker’s podium obviously to catch his attention, while appellants No.1 and 2 continued to remain at their respective places.

8. Suddenly, after about fifteen minutes, the Finance Minister stopped the speech. Then the Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries stood up and addressed the Speaker from an already prepared piece of paper proposing to move a motion under Rule 340(2) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Telangana Legislative Assembly (briefly ‘the Rules’ hereinafter) to suspend the appellants from the House till the end of the ongoing Session. Immediately the Speaker read out from an already prepared piece of paper stating that the aforesaid motion was moved and immediately he put it for voting. Because of the overwhelming majority of the ruling party Telangana Rashtra Samithi, b