Magistrate told to expedite hearing of the complaint on CM
Justice K. Lakshman of the Telangana High Court has directed the Special Judicial First Class Magistrate (JFCM) for Excise cases at Hyderabad to expedite the proceedings of a private complaint filed against Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.
The judge asked the magistrate to thoroughly examine the material placed before him and to resolve the matter in accordance with the law.
Justice Lakshman was hearing a petition filed by Telangana BJP state general secretary Kasam Venkateshwarulu seeking a directive to the Special JFCM to investigate his private complaint dated May 14, 2024.
The complainant accuses the chief minister of making inflammatory statements during a public meeting on May 4, Prakasham Stadium in Kothagudem. Venkateshwarulu alleged that Revanth claimed that the BJP, if voted to power, would alter the Constitution to remove reservations for SC, ST, and BC communities.
Justice Lakshman criticised the Special JFCM for adjourning the case to July 6, 2024, without delving into the merits of the complaint. He pointed out that the magistrate was duty bound to either take cognizance of the complaint, issue notices, or refer the matter to the police for investigation. The judge found fault with the Magistrate’s decision to delay the hearing without proper consideration of the complaint’s contents.
Senior counsel Devineni Vijay Kumar, representing the petitioner, argued for a day-to-day adjudication of the complaint. After hearing the petitioner’s arguments, Justice Lakshman disposed of the criminal petition directing the magistrate to proceed with the case expeditiously.
Disqualification petitions: Speaker told to file counter
Justice B Vijaysen Reddy of the Telangana High Court on Monday directed the office of the Speaker to file counters regarding the status of disqualification petitions against MLAs Danam Nagender (Khairatabad), Venkata Rao Tellam (Bhadradri Kothagudem) and Kadiyam Srihari (Ghanpur, SC Reserved).
The three MLAs, originally elected on BRS tickets, defected to the Congress following the 2023 Assembly elections results. The petitions seeking their disqualification have been pending before the Speaker, as their actions violated party rules. The three MLAs did not resign from the BRS before switching allegiance.
Earlier, in response to Justice Vijaysen Reddy’s directions, the disqualification petitions were handed over to the Government Pleader for General Administration. The GP ensured these petitions were delivered to the Speaker’s office.
On April 15, the court issued notices to the three MLAs, the state government, the Election Commission of India (ECI), and the Chief Electoral Officer, Telangana, directing them to respond to the petitioners’ claims.
The petitioners, Padi Kaushik Reddy and KP Vivekananda, both from BRS, argued for the disqualification of the three MLAs for violating party rules and defecting to the Congress without resigning from their original party.
The court will hear the matter further on June 27.