‘Centre has power to alter legislative council’s seats’

Hyderabad: A day after BRS said the existence of legislative council is in danger due to lack of required number of assembly seats (120) in Telangana to have 40 MLCs in the council as per the Constitution, constitutional experts say the Centre has vast powers under Article 4 where it can exercise supplemental, incidental and consequential powers to alter the number of members that will suit the legislative bodies.
The Supreme Court clearly said in the Punjab Reorganisation Act-1966 case that Parliament can make changes to rectify the mistakes that led to constitutional problems.
As per Article 171 of the Constitution, the strength of the legislative council in Telangana should not be less than 40, which is arrived at from the strength of the legislative assembly — one-third of the total. The total strength of the assembly was 120 till Dec, including 119 elected and one nominated (Anglo-Indian) member.
Former advocate general K Rama Krishna Reddy said only Parliament has the power to address the issue. The Centre has vast powers to create a new state under Article 2 of the Constitution and also address the issue of new states under Article 4. “The supplemental, incidental and consequential issues can be treated as good as the constitutional amendments,” he said.
Elaborating on this, he said: “In the Punjab Reorganisation Act, after formation of two states, Punjab and Haryana, there was issue of members in the council. In the Mangal Singh vs Union of India in 1967 (Punjab Reorganisation Act), the apex court bench said Parliament had right to alter the number of seats.”
He said there was the issue of members, when united Punjab was bifurcated creating Punjab where some members of Haryana were unseated as Haryana was a unicameral legislature while Punjab was bicameral.
Senior BRS leader and former MP B Vinod Kumar said the existence of the legislative council in Telangana was in danger following the decline in assembly strength from 120 to 119 after the 104th amendment to the Constitution, under which the representation of the Anglo-Indian community was done away with since Dec last year.
A senior retired IAS officer, who worked in the CMO earlier, said the crisis was not sudden and it started on Dec 4, 2023, after the assembly election results and the new assembly was notified.
“The governor and law secretary should have realised the problem and taken up the issue with the Centre and the state govt,” he said. The legislative council, however, is not facing any existential crisis, he said.