HYDERABAD: Justice B Vijaysen Reddy of the Telangana High Court raised concerns over the prolonged delay in the Assembly Speaker addressing disqualification petitions against BRS MLAs who defected to the Congress.
During the adjudication of a batch of writ petitions filed seeking direction to the Speaker to take action, Justice Vijaysen questioned Advocate General (AG) A Sudershan Reddy about the timeframe for the decision and how long the court should wait for it.
In response, the AG emphasised that these issues are constitutional in nature and cannot be bypassed by the courts. He also pointed out that the petitioners used inappropriate language against the Speaker, which he argued should lead to the dismissal of the petitions as they were filed merely 10 days after submitting the disqualification petitions.
Senior counsel Ravishankar Jandhyala, representing MLA Danam Nagender who defected from the BRS to the Congress, contended that in other states, court directives for the Speaker to pass orders were issued under different circumstances, such as when party symbols were allotted or MLAs were barred from the Assembly. In this case, the Speaker has not yet issued any orders on the pending disqualification petitions.
Gandra Mohan Rao, senior counsel for the BRS, refuted the AG’s claim that the party had rushed to court. He clarified that the writ petition seeking disqualification was filed nearly a month after the initial disqualification petitions were submitted to the Speaker. He highlighted that the Speaker’s office only acknowledged the petitions following a court directive to the Secretary of the Assembly. He argued that if the court could instruct the secretary to receive the petitions, it should also direct the Speaker to act on them. He further cited a Supreme Court observation that individuals facing disqualification should not continue as MLAs even for a single day.
He criticised the Speaker for failing to fulfil his constitutional duties, noting that three and a half months had passed since the petitions were received without any notices being issued to the MLAs who had defected.
The court heard three writ petitions: one filed by Huzurabad BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy seeking the disqualification of Danam Nagender, another by Quthbullapur MLA Kuna Pandu Vivekananda seeking the disqualification of Tellam Venkata Rao and a third by Nirmal BJP legislator Alleti Maheshwar Reddy seeking the disqualification of Danam Nagender.
The court adjourned the matter to Tuesday.