Hyderabad: In the dispute over the alleged police action against BRS legislators, the Telangana high court modified its earlier direction, and has now asked the DGP to identify the officials allegedly involved in misbehaving with or manhandling women legislators and furnish their details to the speaker for appropriate action.“If the incident occurred outside the assembly’s precincts, at the entry point, he (the DGP) must report to the high court,” the HC said on Tuesday.Justice T Madhavi Devi, hearing the vacate petition filed by the govt challenging the order in writ petition filed by BRS legislature party (BRSLP), also declined to vacate its earlier interim order. The judge retained her Sept 7 direction that any action for violations of assembly rules falls within the speaker’s domain and not that of the police. The court observed that the respondents themselves had taken a similar stand.The court also pointed to several inconsistencies in the state’s defence, raising questions over the justification offered for the police action.The court also highlighted what it described as gaps in the state’s arguments denying the allegations and defending the police action.The order noted that a Sept 7 communication issued by the secretary to legislature, which was cited as authorising police intervention, was not referred to in the respondents’ counter affidavit. The omission, the court observed, lent support to the petitioners’ contention that the document was created as an afterthought.The judge further noted that the FIR against the BRS legislators was registered at 4pm, after the legislature secretary’s order issued at 3.30pm. The state’s contention that the legislators had violated prohibitory orders issued by the Hyderabad police commissioner also appeared to be an afterthought, the court observed, since those orders were not mentioned in the FIR.The court observed that the prohibitory orders related to assemblies and processions in the vicinity of the assembly and not to the entry of legislators into the House.On the allegations involving women legislators, the court said the police had merely issued bare denials without offering a satisfactory explanation for obstructing them or taking them to the BRS headquarters. The order noted that there was neither any allegation nor material to show that the women legislators had misbehaved with police personnel or violated any directions issued by the speaker.At the same time, the court declined to accept the BRSLP’s contention that the legislators could simply have changed their shirts before entering the assembly, observing that such an assumption could not be drawn without evidence.
