The Supreme Court on Friday granted a final two-week extension to the Telangana Assembly Speaker to file a status report on the adjudication of disqualification pleas against ten Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs who defected to the ruling Congress party.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and A.G. Masih warned that this would be the last opportunity extended to the Speaker and that “consequences will follow” if compliance is not ensured.
The direction came in response to a plea by senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Speaker, who requested eight weeks’ time citing health issues. Singhvi submitted that the Speaker had recently undergone eye surgery and that in seven of the eight pending disqualification cases, orders had been pronounced, while in one, the order had been reserved.
However, senior advocate Dama Seshadri Naidu, appearing for the BRS MLAs, opposed the extension, arguing that the Speaker had already failed to meet the earlier Supreme Court-mandated three-month deadline. “The Speaker cannot be allowed repeated extensions. The earlier time granted has long since expired,” he said.
The controversy pertains to ten BRS MLAs who defected to the Congress, prompting the BRS to file disqualification petitions under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which deals with disqualification on grounds of defection.
On July 31, 2025, the apex court had directed the Speaker to decide the disqualification pleas within three months, noting the urgency and constitutional sensitivity of the matter. However, with no decision forthcoming, the Court issued a contempt notice to the Speaker on November 17, 2025, calling the delay the “grossest kind of contempt.”
The Court also clarified at that time that the Speaker, when deciding disqualification pleas, functions as a tribunal under the Tenth Schedule and therefore does not enjoy constitutional immunity.
The current contempt proceedings stem from writ petitions filed by senior BRS leaders including K.T. Rama Rao, Padi Kaushik Reddy, and K.O. Vivekanand, challenging the delay in adjudicating the disqualification petitions.
While hearing a separate plea by the Speaker’s office seeking an eight-week extension, the Court today said it will wait two more weeks for a detailed status report indicating the steps taken in adjudicating the matter.
The case will be heard again after the expiry of the two-week deadline.
