In a significant ruling, the Telangana High Court on Friday instructed the Speaker of the Telangana Legislative Assembly to resolve the disqualification petitions against three BRS MLAs within a “reasonable time”. The directive was aimed at MLAs Danam Nagender, Tellam Venkat Rao, and Kadiyam Srihari, who had defected to the ruling Congress party.
The decision, handed down by a bench comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao, overruled a prior judgment by a single judge that had required the Assembly Secretary to present the disqualification petitions to the Speaker. The bench emphasized that it is the responsibility of the Speaker to address these petitions promptly, taking into account their pending duration and the assembly’s tenure.
The initial request for judicial intervention was brought forward by BRS MLAs K P Vivekanand and P Kaushik Reddy, along with BJP floor leader in the Assembly, Alleti Maheshwar Reddy. They sought a court order compelling the Speaker to act on the disqualification petitions previously submitted.
Previously, on September 9, a single judge had directed the Assembly Secretary to immediately place the disqualification petition before the Speaker, setting a four-week deadline for scheduling a hearing. The court also mandated that the hearing schedule be communicated to the Registrar (Judicial) of the High Court, with a stipulation for reopening the case ‘suo motu’ if no update was provided.
