The Telangana High Court has issued a directive to the state Legislative Assembly Secretary to advance the disqualification petitions of three MLAs from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) who have since joined the ruling Congress party. The order, given by Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, mandates that these petitions be presented to the Telangana Assembly Speaker for prompt resolution.
The MLAs in question—Danam Nagender, Tellam Venkat Rao, and Kadiyam Srihari—have been at the center of a political controversy following their defection to Congress, prompting calls for their disqualification under party-switching grounds. Justice Reddy has instructed that a timetable for the hearing and decision on these disqualification petitions be established within four weeks, and this schedule must also be communicated to the Registrar of the High Court.
The urgency of the High Court’s directive comes with a stipulation: if the Assembly fails to communicate the schedule within the allotted timeframe, the High Court will automatically reopen the petitions for further hearings. This move underscores the judiciary’s commitment to ensuring that legislative processes related to the integrity of political representation are not unduly delayed.
The disqualification petitions were initially brought forth by two BRS MLAs, K P Vivekanand and P Kaushik Reddy, as well as BJP floor leader in the Assembly, Alleti Maheshwar Reddy. Their appeal to the High Court sought a judicial intervention to compel the Speaker to act on the petitions, reflecting growing tensions within the state’s political landscape over party defections.
