Petition against Andhra CM in apex court withdrawn

New Delhi, Dec 11: A petition challenging the continuance of N Kiran Kumar Reddy as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister has been withdrawn from the Supreme Court by MLA S Venu Gopala Chary after the former won a no-trust motion last week.

A bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and Dipak Mishra permitted counsel Sateesh Galla to withdraw the petition as "it had become infructous" in view of Reddy's victory in the motion moved by Opposition Leader N Chandrababu Naidu.

Chary had earlier moved the apex court questioning Reddy's propriety and legal validity of continuing as chief minister on the ground that the Congress had "lost" majority in the House after 79 party legislators resigned on the twin issue of Telangana and support to YSR Congress. The SLP, filed by S Venu Gopala Chary, a Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLA from Adilabad, challenged the Andhra Pradesh High Court's November 14 order dismissing his petition on the issue.

The petition had urged the apex court to issue a writ of quo warranto to the chief minister who, according to the petition, has lost majority in the 294-member Assembly in view of the spate of resignations over Telangana issue and another faction joining the rebel YSR Congress headed by Y Jagan Mohan Reddy, son of late chief minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy. Quo warranto is issued by a high court or the Supreme Court questioning the authority under which a person is holding a particular Constitutional or statutory post.

According to the petition as on October 30, resignation of 79 MLAs from the Assembly are pending with the Speaker, besides disqualification petitions against seven MLAs [Congress-4, TDP-2, PRP 1]. The petition said though Kiran Kumar Reddy has lost majority in the House, the principal opposition Telugu Desam Party was not willing to move any no-confidence motion and TRS on its own cannot muster the requisite number to move the motion.

PTI