Plea against CM withdrawn in SC

A petition challenging the continuation of N. Kiran Kumar Reddy as Chief Minister has been withdrawn from the Supreme Court by MLA S. Venugopala Chary after the former won a no-trust motion last week. A bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and Dipak Mishra permitted counsel Sateesh Galla to withdraw the petition as "it had become infructous" in view of Mr Reddy's victory in the motion moved by Opposition Leader N. Chandrababu Naidu.

Mr Chary had earlier moved the apex court questioning Reddy's propriety and legal validity of continuing as CM on the ground that the Congress had "lost" majority in the House after 79 party legislators resigned on the twin issue of Telangana and support to YSR Congress. The SLP, filed by S. Venugopala Chary, a Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) MLA from Adilabad, challenged the AP High Court's November 14 order dismissing his petition on the issue. The petition had urged the apex court to issue a writ of quo warranto to the Chief Minister who, according to the petition, has lost majority in the Assembly.