HYDERABAD: While disposing of disqualification petitions against five out of the 10 “turncoat” MLAs, Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar held that the petitions suffered from “foundational and incurable, jurisdictional and evidentiary defects”.
He noted that the petitions failed to meet mandatory statutory requirements prescribed under the Members of Telangana Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules, 1986.
All five orders, passed by the Speaker as the designated Tribunal under the anti-defection law on Wednesday, were published in the Telangana Gazette Extraordinary, reflect identical reasoning and findings.
In the concluding observation of the orders, the Speaker recorded that the petitioners have failed to establish locus standi to maintain the petitions, citing that the petitions were non-compliant with Rule 3(1)(a) of the Members of Telangana Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules, 1986.
He further held that the petitioners neither pleaded nor proved that the respondents had “voluntarily given up” their membership of the BRS, a key requirement under Paragraph 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule.
The Tribunal found that the material relied upon by the petitioners consisted largely of hearsay media reports, uncertified electronic records and unverified newspaper clippings, which were held to be inadmissible in law and insufficient to establish defection. The Speaker noted that the burden of proof under disqualification proceedings was not discharged.
Concluding that there was “no material, either in fact or in law” to attract disqualification under the Tenth Schedule, the Speaker dismissed all five petitions: KP Vivekanand (petitioner) vs T Venkata Rao (respondent), Palla Rajeshwar Reddy and another (petitioners) vs Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy (respondent), Kalvakuntla Sanjay (petitioner) vs T Prakash Goud (respondent), Chinta Prabhakar (petitioner) vs Gudem Mahipal Reddy (respondent) and Kalvakuntla Sanjay (petitioner) vs Arekapudi Gandhi (respondent).
While disposing of the petitions, the Speaker declared that the MLAs in question will continue to be the members of the Telangana Legislative Assembly.