HYDERABAD: In a significant development, Justice B Vijaysen Reddy of the Telangana High Court has directed the Secretary of the Telangana legislative assembly to present three pending writ petitions before the Speaker, seeking the disqualification of MLAs who defected from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to the Congress. The directive includes fixing a schedule for filing of pleadings, submission of documents, and personal hearings in the matter.
The High Court instructed the Secretary to submit a status report regarding the Speaker's schedule to the Judicial Registry within four weeks. Justice Reddy also made it clear that if the Speaker failed to act and schedule hearings on the disqualification petitions, the court would reopen the cases and issue further orders.
Among the three petitions, one petition was filed by Aleti Maheshwar Reddy, a BJP MLA from Nirmal. He urged the court to direct the Speaker to disqualify Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender, who defected from the BRS to join the Congress and contested in the recent Lok Sabha elections. Maheshwar Reddy claimed that his efforts to submit the petition to the Speaker’s office on July 1, 2024, were thwarted as he was denied an acknowledgement by the staff.
The second petition was filed by Huzurabad MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy seeking the disqualification of Danam Nagender. The third petition was filed by Kuna Pandu Vivekananda, seeking the disqualification of Bhadradri Kothagudem MLA Venkata Rao Tellam and Ghanpur (SC Reserved) MLA Kadiyam Srihari, who defected to the Congress from the BRS.