'Reasonable time': Telangana HC lays time frame for Speaker to decide on defecting BRS MLAs

Hyderabad, Nov 22 (IANS) The Telangana High Court on Friday directed the Assembly Speaker to take a call on the disqualification of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs who joined the ruling Congress within a "reasonable time".

A division bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J. Sreenivas Rao set aside its single-judge bench's order directing the office of the Speaker to announce a schedule, within four weeks, for deciding the applications for disqualification of defected MLAs and suggested that the presiding officer take a decision on disqualification applications as per the 10th Schedule of the Constitution within a "reasonable time".

The bench observed that the Speaker should decide as per the Anti-Defection Act while keeping in mind the five-year term of the Assembly.

The order came on three appeals filed by the Legislative Assembly Secretary against the order of a single judge.

In September, the High Court passed an order directing the office of the Speaker to pronounce a schedule for the hearing of the petitions seeking disqualification of the MLAs and furnish a copy of the schedule to the court's Registry.

The single judge had pronounced the orders on September 9 on two writ petitions filed by BRS MLAs K.P. Vivekanand and Padi Kaushik Reddy and the third by BJP floor leader A. Maheshwar Reddy, seeking the disqualification of Danam Nagender (Khairatabad), Tellam Venkat Rao (Bhadrachalam) and Kadiyam Srihari (Station Ghanpur), who switched loyalties to the ruling party after winning last year’s Assembly elections as BRS candidates.

The counsels for the petitioners argued that Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar was not following the Supreme Court orders on the issue of disqualification.

The BRS recently intensified its legal efforts to get 10 MLAs disqualified for defecting to the Congress after the 2023 elections, where it lost power after two terms.

BRS Working President K. T. Rama Rao along with T. Harish Rao and other senior leaders had met legal experts in Delhi as part of the party’s efforts to get turncoat MLAs disqualified.

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