Supreme Court modifies interim order, halts tenure of Kodandaram, Amer Ali Khan as MLCs

The Supreme Court has annulled the MLC appointments of Prof M Kodandaram and journalist Amer Ali Khan, declaring their tenure invalid. The two seats will remain vacant until the court delivers its final verdict on the pending petitions challenging their nominations

Hyderabad: The Supreme Court on Wednesday modified its earlier interim order, effectively halting the continuation of Prof M Kodandaram and senior journalist Amer Ali Khan as MLCs. The court made it clear that the two MLC positions will remain vacant until further orders. The case has been posted for the next hearing in November.

According to reports, the bench, led by Justice Vikram Nath, deleted the earlier sentence from its August 14, 2024 interim order that had stayed the Telangana High Court’s judgment quashing their nomination. It clarified that any fresh nomination to the two vacant seats would now be subject to the final outcome of the pending petitions.

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The latest orders were issued in connection with the petitions filed by BRS leaders Dasoju Sravan Kumar and Kurra Satyanarayana, whose 2023 nominations under the Governor’s quota were rejected by the then Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan. The current Congress government later recommended Kodandaram and Amer Ali, whose appointments were accepted by the Governor.

Sravan Kumar and Satyanarayana had challenged the appointments, saying they were against the rules meant for Governor’s quota seats.

During arguments, the petitioners’ counsel told the court that the two appointees took oath as MLCs by leveraging the earlier stay order. Justice Nath observed that this was not the court’s intention and termed it a “mistake” in the interim order.

“What I intended was that any fresh nomination would be subject to the outcome of this petition, not that the previous recommendations set aside by the High Court would stand revived,” he clarified.

Attorney General R Venkataramani argued that the Governor had acted on the aid and advice of the new Council of Ministers, and that the High Court need not have interfered with the subsequent nominations. However, Justice Nath ruled that “any action taken after the interim order shall stand annulled,” meaning Kodandaram and Amer Ali’s current tenure is invalid.