The Andhra Pradesh high court on Tuesday issued notices to state legislative assembly speaker Ch Ayyanna Patrudu and assembly secretary general Suryadevara Prasanna Kumar on the demand made by YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy for leader of opposition status to him.
The high court, which admitted a petition filed by Jagan, seeking a direction to the speaker and the secretary general to grant him leader of opposition status, asked them to file their counter-affidavits explaining the rule position.
The high court sought to know whether there are any specific rules with regard to the mandatory 10% of seats for the opposition party to get the leader of opposition status.
“Furnish all the details and place them before the court,” the high court said, deferring the further hearing to three weeks later.
In his petition, Jagan alleged that despite writing a letter to the Speaker on the Leader of Opposition status to him, the latter has not given any response or reason.
He urged the high court not to allow the discretionary powers of the Speaker in the case and to apply Constitutional principles.
Stating that the status of LoP is given on capability and not based on numbers, Jagan said the opposition is the voice of the voiceless.
He said there are several examples where LOP status was given to the leader of the party which has even secured less than 10 % of seats, not just in the Parliament, but in other States as well.
He cited the example of LOP status to P Janardhan Reddy in spite of Congress winning only 26 seats out of 294 seats in the 1994 elections.
The YSRC chief accused the State government of denying him the status of LoP intentionally to mute the voice of the people in his petition.
