Hyderabad: In a major setback to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a division bench of the Telangana High Court has dismissed the petition filed by the two opposition parties seeking the disqualification of three MLAs who defected to Congress after the change of power in the state.
The division bench comprising chief justice Alok Aradhe and justice J Srinivas Rao pronounced the verdict on Friday, November 22, directing the speaker of the Assembly to decide on the disqualification of the MLAs as per the tenth schedule of the Anti-Defection Law.
As per the tenth schedule, “If any question arises as to whether a member of a House has become
subject to disqualification under this Schedule, the question shall be referred for the decision of the Chairman or, as the case may be, the Speaker of such House and his decision shall be final.”
Telangana HC reserves verdict on disqualification of 3 defected BRS MLAs
The division bench directed the speaker to take the decision keeping in mind the five-year term of the present Assembly.
The appeals challenged a September 9, 2024 order by a single judge which directed the Assembly secretary to submit the disqualification petition of the three defected MLAs before the Speaker for a decision within four weeks.
BRS MLAs Padi Kaushik Reddy and KP Vivekananda Goud, as well as BJP leader A Maheshwar Reddy approached the High Court seeking the disqualification of MLAs Danam Nagender, Kadiyam Srihari and Tellam Venkat Rao, who switched from BRS to Congress after the transition of power in Telangana.
