The Telangana government on Friday appointed senior advocate Banda Shivananda Prasad as the new Advocate General for the state, after his name was cleared by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
This came after the state issued orders, which officially accepted the resignation of former Advocate General, Prakash Reddy, who had put in his papers in March this year. The post had been lying vacant since then.
Hailing from Jangaon, Prasad was reported to be the first Advocate General from the Backward Classes, after the formation of Telangana in 2014.
According to media reports, Prasad was said to have enrolled as an advocate in 1987, and was holding the post of the government pleader for the state's Medical, Health and Family Welfare Department.
Prakash Reddy had submitted his resignation citing 'personal reasons', but reports suggested that he was upset after the state government hired senior Supreme Court lawyer Harish Salve to argue the case of the expelled Congress MLAs in the Hyderabad High Court, without consulting him.
The two MLAs, Sampath Kumar and Venkat Reddy, were expelled after the Congress created a commotion during the joint session of the Assembly and Legislative Council on March 12.
In the ruckus that ensued during the Governor's speech, Venkat Reddy hurled his headphones towards the podium, and ended up injuring Legislative Council Chairman Swamy Goud’s eye.
As they challenged the expulsion in court, Prakash Reddy who first argued the case on behalf of the state government, orally assured that the video footage of the Governor’s address would be produced before the bench on March 22.
However, the state government was reportedly displeased with Reddy's assurance and cited an order by the Parliamentary Standing Committee, which forbids State Assemblies from producing any material evidence to court without a resolution in the House.
This also comes after the Hyderabad High Court got a new Chief Justice, Thottathil B Radhakrishnan, who took charge last month.
The collegium had made the decision in January this year, but it had to be cleared by the Centre and ratified by President Ramnath Kovind.