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The Telangana High Court on Tuesday, September 29, directed Director General of Police (DGP) CV Anand to identify police personnel allegedly involved in misbehaving with or manhandling women legislators of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).
The alleged manhandling took place during a confrontation at the Assembly gates earlier this month. The DGP has been directed to submit details of the personnel to Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar for appropriate action. If the alleged incident took place outside the Assembly precincts, including at the entry gate, the DGP has been asked to report the matter to the court.
Justice T Madhavi Devi had, on September 7, originally directed authorities not to prevent legislators from attending House proceedings, noting that enforcing internal rules or decorum falls solely within the Speaker's domain and not the police's. While the court declined to cancel the core interim protection allowing MLAs to enter the Assembly on September 29, it modified the directions concerning police conduct and asked the DGP to probe the matter.
The case stems from a chaotic start to the monsoon session, when BRS MLAs wearing black T-shirts and shouting anti-Congress slogans were stopped at the Assembly entrance. The BRS alleged that police personnel manhandled its women members, including former minister Sabitha Indra Reddy and MLA Sunitha Lakshma Reddy. The allegations became a central part of the party's petition before the court.
The High Court also questioned several aspects of the state's defence. It noted that a September 7 communication from the Legislature Secretary, cited by the government as authorising police intervention, was not mentioned in its counter-affidavit. The court further pointed out that the FIR was registered at 4 pm, after the communication was issued at 3:30 pm, while the alleged violation of police prohibitory orders was not cited in the FIR.
The court said those prohibitory orders concerned assemblies and processions around the Assembly and did not appear to cover legislators entering the House. It also found the police response to the allegations concerning the women MLAs insufficient, noting that there was no material before it showing that the women legislators had misbehaved with the police or violated any direction of the Speaker.
At the same time, the court rejected the BRS's argument that its legislators could simply have changed their black T-shirts before entering the House, saying such an assumption could not be made without evidence.