YSR Congress chief, 2 MPs withdraw plea from Delhi High Court

YSR Congress chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and two MPs of his party today withdrew their pleas from the Delhi High Court that had sought a direction to the Lok Sabha Speaker to accept their resignations from the lower House.
The lawmakers told Justice Manmohan that the Telangana bill has already been passed in both Houses of parliament, rendering their petitions infructuous and hence they be allowed to withdraw them.
The court allowed Jaganmohan, Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy and S P Y Reddy to withdraw their petitions.
Earlier, the three YSR Congress MPs had agreed before the 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 court was hearing the plea of Jaganmohan and the two other MPs who had resigned in August last year over proposed bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and moved the High Court seeking quashing of the Speaker's decision to reject their resignations.
The counsel for the MPs had 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 remedy other than moving the court.

They had also contended 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 petition had said.
Seeking a court order directing the Speaker to accept their resignations, the petitioners had 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.