HYDERABAD : Justice B Vijaysen Reddy of the Telangana High Court on Tuesday issued notices to key officials, the Election Commission of India (ECI) and two MLAs Tellam Venkata Rao and Kadiyam Srihari, who were elected on a BRS ticket but had defected to the Congress, asking them to respond by June 5. The officials include the principal secretary of the Law and Legislative Department and the secretary of the Telangana Legislative Assembly.
Based on disqualification petitions filed by Quthbullapur MLA KP Vivekananda Goud, Justice Vijaysen earlier directed the Advocate General of Telangana to ensure that petitions reached the office of the Speaker and were duly acknowledged. On Tuesday, the court was told that the petitions had reached the Speaker’s office, with the acknowledgement provided to Gandra Mohan Rao, petitioner’s counsel.
BRS MLA Vivekananda had sought a directive for the Assembly Speaker to act upon the disqualification petitions. These petitions, sent by Vivekananda to the Speaker on April 10, via registered post and e-mail, sought the disqualification of the Bhadrachalam and Station Ghanpur MLAs over their defection to the grand old party.
Additionally, another writ petition, filed by Padi Kaushik Reddy, BRS MLA from Huzurabad, sought the disqualification of Khairtabad MLA Danam Nagender, who joined the Congress and is now contesting MP from the Secunderabad Lok Sabha segment. In response, the court had already issued notices.