Will meet Speaker over resignation, says YSR Cong chief Jagan Reddy

New Delhi: YSR Congress chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy and two others of his party today agreed before the Delhi High Court to meet Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to assure her about the veracity and voluntary nature of their resignations as members of Parliament. The three YSR Congress MPs gave the assurance to Justice V K Jain who suggested during arguments that they should have met the Speaker after she had rejected their resignations allegedly without giving reasons. [caption id=“attachment_1227493” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  YSR Congress Chief Jaganmohan Reddy. PTI[/caption] The bench noted that since Jaganmohan has been restrained from leaving Hyderabad, he will move the appropriate court there seeking permission to travel out of the state in order to meet the Speaker. The bench, meanwhile, posted the matter to 17 December when it will hear arguments on whether the petition of the MPs, seeking quashing of the Speaker’s decision rejecting their resignations, is maintainable. The court was hearing the plea of Jaganmohan and two others - Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy and SPY Reddy - who had resigned in August this year over proposed bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and moved the High Court seeking quashing of the Speaker’s decision to reject their resignations. During the proceedings, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Rajeeve Mehra contended before the bench that the high court does not have the jurisdiction to interfere in the decision of the Speaker. The ASG also contended that since the resignations can only be rejected if the same were not genuine or voluntary, thus that reason/ground can be inferred from the decision of the Speaker. The counsel for the MPs, however, contended that under the Constitution, the Speaker is expected to give a reason while rejecting the resignations and since no grounds were given they had no other remedy than to move the court. The counsel also contended that the decision was arbitrary as the Speaker did not make any enquiry to find out whether their resignations were genuine and voluntary. Apart from the three YSR Congress MPs, nine others from Indian National Congress and one from Telugu Desam Party had tendered their resignations, the petitioner’s counsel said. Seeking a court order directing the Speaker to accept their resignations, the petitioners said they were not contacted by the Speaker “to ascertain whether the letters were voluntary or genuine, thereby showing that Respondent 2 (Speaker) had no intention of accepting the resignations. “These rejections are contrary to both Article 101 of the Constitution as well as Rule 240 of the Rules of Procedure of Lok Sabha because there has been no basic verification of whether the resignations are voluntary or genuine,” the MPs have said in their petition. In the plea, the petitioners said, “The Respondent 2 (Speaker) has not abide by the Constitution or Rule 240 of the Lok Sabha Rules of Procedure to verify whether the letters of resignation may not be voluntary or genuine. As these are the only grounds on which a resignation may not be accepted, it was necessary for such an exercise to be undertaken to satisfy Respondent 2…” PTI