Disqualification of turncoat MLAs: SC issues notice to Telangana Speaker, calls it ‘grossest kind of contempt’

The Supreme Court issued a contempt notice to Telangana Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar for delaying action on disqualification pleas against 10 BRS MLAs who defected to Congress. The matter is posted for hearing in four weeks.

Hyderabad: The Supreme Court on Monday issued a contempt notice to Telangana Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar for not complying with its direction to decide disqualification pleas against 10 Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs who had defected to the ruling Congress after the last Assembly polls.

On July 31, top court bench headed by Chief Justice BR Gavai had directed the Speaker to decide in three months the matter of the disqualification of the 10 BRS MLAs. The CJI-led bench termed the non-compliance of its earlier directions as the ‘grossest kind of contempt’ while issuing notices to the Speaker and others on the pleas filed by BRS leaders. The bench, however, exempted the Speaker and others from personal appearance before it till further orders.

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The bench also issued notice on a separate plea filed on behalf of the Office of the Speaker seeking extension of time by eight more weeks to decide the disqualification pleas. Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Abhishek Singhvi, appearing along with lawyer Sravan Kumar for the Office of the Speaker, said they were seeking extension of time. The hearing on four disqualification pleas are complete and in three cases, recording of evidence has concluded, said one of the lawyers.

“This should have been concluded … Finish it by next week or face the contempt. We have already held that he doesn’t enjoy constitutional immunity when considering matters under the Tenth Schedule … This is the grossest kind of contempt…It is for him to decide where he wants to celebrate his New Year’s Eve,” the CJI said.

The bench has now posted the matter for further hearing after four weeks. Rohatgi assured the bench that he would personally convey the feelings of the Court to the Office of the Speaker and hopefully, decisions would be taken in four weeks.

On November 10, the apex court had agreed to hear on November 17 the petition seeking contempt proceedings against the Telangana Speaker. The contempt plea stems from the apex court’s July 31 judgment, delivered by a bench of the CJI and Justice AG Masih, in a batch of writ petitions filed by BRS leaders KT Rama Rao, Padi Kaushik Reddy and KP Vivekanand. The Supreme Court had directed the Speaker to decide the disqualification petitions as expeditiously as possible and in any case within three months, also setting aside a Telangana High Court ruling that no time limit could be imposed on the Speaker.

With the Speaker’s continued delay triggering political unrest in Telangana, BRS working president KT Rama Rao had recently said the party was prepared to approach the Supreme Court once again to ensure the defected MLAs are unseated, insisting that by-elections in the constituencies had become inevitable.

Earlier in August, a group of BRS MLAs had even submitted a disqualification petition at the Mahatma Gandhi statue on the Assembly premises after failing to meet the Speaker.

The 10 MLAs, Danam Nagender (Khairatabad constituency), Tellam Venkat Rao (Bhadrachalam), Kadiyam Srihari (Station Ghanpur), Pocharam Srinivas Reddy (Banswada), M Sanjay Kumar (Jagtial), Arekapudi Gandhi (Serilingampally), T Prakash Goud (Rajendranagar), B Krishna Mohan Reddy (Gadwal), G Mahipal Reddy (Patancheru) and Kale Yadaiah (Chevella) had defected to the Congress last year, and have been working for the ruling party ever since, campaigning for it and participating in party programmes. However, as the threat of disqualification got closer to reality, they have started denying the same, with some insisting that they had not joined the Congress, and that they were ‘technically still’ with the BRS.