By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Wednesday set for Feb 1 the hearing of a lawsuit seeking its intervention into the constitutional crisis in the offing, triggered by en masse resignations of 139 state legislators over the separate Telangana issue.
The apex court took the decision on a lawsuit of former parliament member M. Narayan Reddy, who held that the indecision of the assembly speaker on the 139 state legislators’ resignation over the separate Telanagana state issue has created a constitutional crisis in Andhra Pradesh.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice J.M. Panchal and Justice B.S. Chauhan decided to hear the lawsuit, which claimed that Speaker N. Kiran Kumar Reddy’s inaction had set off the constitutional crisis in the state.
The state assembly has 294 legislators.
Appearing for Narayan Reddy, senior counsel Subodh Markandey, citing various articles of the Constitution, told the court that resignation of a legislator or parliamentarian is deemed to be accepted the moment it is tendered to the speaker of the relevant house.
Markandey told the court that the 139 legislators, who quit to support creating a separate state Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh, belonged to various parties.
The en masse resignation by the legislators has led to obscurity over the majority of the state government and it is not known if the present government has the requisite mandate to govern the state.
Markandey sought the court’s direction to state assembly speaker to accept all the pending resignation and set in motion for formation of a new popular government.