Disqualification of turncoat MLAs: Telangana High Court asks Speaker to decide in four weeks

In a case filed by the BRS seeking the disqualification of MLAs for defecting to the Congress, the High Court has directed the Assembly Secretary to submit a status report within four weeks. If the report is not filed, the Court will consider reopening the case on its own initiative.

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday directed the State Legislative Assembly Secretary to place before the Speaker the file of disqualification petitions of three MLAs – Tellam Venkat Rao, Kadiyam Srihari and Danam Nagender – who defected to the Congress and to decide on the action to be taken within four weeks. The Court also said a status report with the schedule of action had to be communicated to the Registrar of the High Court, failing which the Court would re-open the case suo moto for hearing.

Pronouncing orders on the petitions by BRS MLAs KP Vivekananda and Padi Kaushik Reddy and BP MLA A Maheshwar Reddy, Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy stated that since there was no information on the status of the disqualification petitions pending before the Speaker, with the writ plea being filed in April and no action even after August, a case was made out by the petitioners for grant of relief.

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During the hearing, the petitioners’ counsel had highlighted the delay by the Speaker in taking action against the defecting MLAs, despite a petition filed under Schedule X before the Speaker for several months. They contended that such a delay might give the ruling party a chance to enable more defections from the BRS.

The counsel representing the defected MLAs and the State had earlier questioned the maintainability of the writ petition by contending that a writ of mandamus could not lie against the Speaker.

He had argued that the court lacked jurisdiction to issue a writ of mandamus against the Speaker to decide upon the disqualification pleas preferred by the petitioner against the defected MLAs. Following this, after hearing the parties at length, the Court had reserved the judgment on August 10.

The judgment was then issued on Monday, indicating a major victory for the BRS, which has repeatedly been asking for the disqualification of the defectors, and had intensified its legal efforts with the number of turncoat MLAs rising to 10 after the petition was first filed.

BRS working president KT Rama Rao along with senior leader T. Harish Rao and other leaders had also met legal experts in Delhi as part of the party’s efforts to get the turncoat MLAs disqualified.

With the Supreme Court earlier delivering clear judgments in various cases, including the Manipur case relating to defections, Rama Rao had said the party would continue its legal battle in the light of the Supreme Court orders in similar cases and as per the advice given by the legal and Constitutional experts in view. Monday’s judgement has therefore come as a sweet victory for the party.

In a similar incident earlier, when there was delay on part of the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker in deciding on disqualification petitions against rebel Shiv Sena MLAs who defected to the Eknath Shinde faction, the Supreme Court had expressed dismay over inaction of the Speaker and said that the Speaker could not delay the proceedings under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution indefinitely and that there had to be a sense of respect to the directions passed by the Court.

A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud had then directed that the disqualification petitions be listed before the Speaker within one week upon which the Speaker had to issue procedural directions for completing the record and setting out the time for hearings.