Telangana: High Court refuses to stop 10 BRS MLAs from attending Telangana Assembly session

Hyderabad: On Thursday, the Telangana High Court refused to restrain 10 BRS MLAs, who defected into the Congress Party recently, from attending the Assembly Session, which will commence shortly, and also restrain them from participating in the Legislative discussions and casting their votes.

The Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao refused to pass orders on an interim application in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the president of the Praja Shanti Party, Dr KA Paul, seeking a direction to restrain the 10 BRS MLAs.

The Division Bench in its orders said that it is the speaker of the Assembly, who has to decide the disqualification petitions, pending before him. It said that the court while adjudicating the writ appeals filed by the Assembly secretary, had already said that the Speaker must decide them within a reasonable time.

The plea asked the court to stop the MLAs from ‘not participating in the ensuing Assembly proceedings and not to exercise their power to vote in the session as they had won as an MLA on the BRS party ticket and joined the Congress party without resigning from the BRS party, which is in violation of the Tenth Schedule and the RP Act, 1951.’

Defections after the 2023 Assembly Elections.

The 10 MLAs of the BRS party who defected into the Congress party after the 2023 Assembly Elections, without resigning from the BRS party are Danam Nagender of Khairatabad Assembly Constituency, Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy (Gadwal), Kadiam Srihari (Ghanpur), Tellam Venkat Rao (Bhadradri Kothagudem), Pocharam Srinivas Reddy (Banswada), Kale Yadiah (Chevella), T Prakash Goud (Rajendra Nagar), M Sanjay Kumar (Jagityal), Gudem Mahipal Reddy (Patancheru) and Arekapudi Gandhi (Serilingampally). The Telangana High Court had issued notices to 10 MLAs of the BRS party.

BRS working president KT Rama Rao said that the anti-defection law’s provisions were compromised. Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender who had been the BRS party’s nominee and won the Assembly elections, contested on a Congress ticket for the Parliamentary elections. The governor had promised to investigate the matter of defections and take appropriate action within the bounds of his position, KTR had added.

Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender who had been the BRS party’s nominee and won the Assembly elections, contested on a Congress ticket for the Parliamentary elections.

BRS MLAs Kuna Pandu Vivekananda and Padi Kaushik Reddy had prayed for a direction to the Speaker to disqualify MLA Bhadradri Koghagudem, Venkata Rao Tellam; MLA Ghanpur-Hanmakonda, Kadiam Srihari; and MLA Kahairtabad, Danam Nagender for defecting to Congress without resigning from the BRS.

Recently, writ appeals requesting the Telangana High Court to set aside the previous HC orders on the disqualification petitions of three BRS MLAs – Danam Nagender, Kadiyam Srihari and T Venkat Rao – were filed by the Telangana Assembly secretary.