Police guarded the gate; the court guarded procedure
BRS legislators were detained outside the Telangana Assembly during a black-T-shirt protest. Reports on a later High Court order say Assembly conduct belongs to the Speaker, not the police.
The reported order placed Assembly conduct with the Speaker, not the police.
BRS legislators arrived at the Telangana Assembly in black T-shirts carrying messages including “Congress Failed to Deliver on Its Promises” and “1,000 Days of Failed Governance”. Police stopped them at the gate, and K. T. Rama Rao, T. Harish Rao and others were detained before being shifted to Telangana Bhavan, according to multiple reports. A confrontation followed. The slogans, at least, had made it inside the headlines.
Reports describing a subsequent Telangana High Court order say the court directed police not to restrain BRS legislators from entering the Assembly and held that regulation of conduct inside the legislative premises belonged to the Speaker. The full order has not been published in the material reviewed, so the court should not be credited with declaring the detention illegal. Police, meanwhile, registered cases against KTR, Harish Rao and other BRS MLAs, alleging misbehaviour and abusive language.
The Congress government in Telangana has not publicly explained why police, rather than Assembly authorities, handled a dispute over legislators’ clothing and slogans. The court’s reported intervention leaves one institution with the job of running the House. The police were apparently busy running the entrance.