MLA Poaching case to be heard after Sankranti

The division bench of the Telangana High Court accepted the request of the State government to adjourn the MLA poaching case to after the Sankranti vacation.

Hyderabad: The division bench of the Telangana High Court comprising Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N Tukaramji accepted the request of the State government to adjourn the MLA poaching case to after the Sankranti vacation.

In the appeal filed by the State government challenging the transfer of the investigation in the case to the CBI, Supreme Court advocate and senior counsel Dushyant Dave had submitted arguments on how the investigation could be transferred to CBI in rare cases with approval of the State government. He faulted the order of the single judge for coming to a conclusion based on apprehensions of the accused and the BJP without any material beyond reasonable doubt.

Dave told the court that once evidence was submitted to the court, it becomes a public document and such revealing of public document by the Chief Minister to the media cannot be considered as leakage of material by the investigating agency. He pointed out that while the BJP was toppling State governments by defecting MLAs from other parties across the country, there was nothing wrong about the Chief Minister of Telangana bringing to the notice of millions of voters the politics played by BJP.

He also faulted the accused in the case and the BJP state wing for resorting to forum shopping and changing their stands in saying what they sought was exercise of criminal jurisdiction by the single judge having actually sought writ jurisdiction under writ of mandamus. As Dave expressed his inability to proceed with continuation of his arguments on Wednesday due to ill health, the court considered his request and adjourned the case to January 18.