BRS MLAs defection case: HC reserves order on appeals challenging previous order

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court reserved orders on the three writ appeals requesting the court to set aside the previous HC orders on the disqualification petitions of three BRS MLAs – Danam Nagender, Kadiyam Srihari and T Venkat Rao.

The Division Bench reserved orders will be pronounced in a couple of days.

On Tuesday, the HC Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao, heard the writ appeals filed by Dr V Narasimha Charyulu, secretary to the Telangana State Legislature who challenged the previous order in the case.

The CJ Bench, while hearing the writ appeals filed by the Assembly Secretary, had earlier issued notices to the principal secretary to the Government Law and Legislative Department, speaker of the TG Legislative Assembly, the Election Commission of India and the three BRS party MLAs – Danam Nagender (Khairatabad Assembly Constituency), Kadiyam Srihari (Ghanpur AC) and T Venkat Rao (Bhadradri Kothagudem AC) – who defected into the Congress party.

The CJ Bench, while issuing notices, gave liberty to the advocate general of Telangana to approach the court if any precipitative action was taken by the single judge before October 24.

What is the case regarding disqualification petitions?

On September 9, Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy directed the secretary of TGSLA to place the disqualification petitions about the defection of BRS MLAs Danam Nagender, Kadiyam Srihari and T Venkat Rao before the speaker for fixing a schedule of hearing (filing of pleadings, documents, personal hearing etc.) within four weeks.

Further, the single judge had directed the Assembly secretary to inform the court about the schedule, failing which the batch of writ petitions will be reopened suo motu. The court ordered the secretary to inform the court about the schedule, failing which the court will reopen the batch of writ petitions suo motu and pass appropriate orders.

Advocate General A Sudershan Reddy, representing the secretary of Telangana State Legislative Assembly (TGSLA) and Jandhyala Ravi Shankar, senior counsel appearing for Danam Nagender informed the court that the single judge had erred in directing the Assembly secretary to place the disqualification petitions before the speaker for fixing the schedule and such a direction cannot be issued to the secretary.

The petitioners before the single judge had approached the court within 10 days of filing the disqualification petitions, whereas as per rules, the disqualification petitions, once they are filed in the speaker’s office, must be looked into within three months. However, in this case, the petitioners approached the court within 10 days from the date of filing the disqualification petitions.

Further, the advocate general and the senior counsel contended that the single judge had issued a direction to the secretary of the TGSLA at a stage when the speaker had to take a decision i.e. at the pre-decisional stage and the petitioners approached the high court by filing writ petitions, which is premature.

The five-judge bench judgment of the Supreme Court was cited, which stated that the courts cannot issue a direction to the speaker of a State Assembly to take action on the disqualification petitions.

Hence, the advocate general and the senior counsel sought a direction to set aside the single judge order.

Defection of BRS MLAs

As many as 10 BRS MLAs switched over to the Congress after Revanth Reddy became the chief minister following the party’s victory in the Assembly polls in November last year. Besides the MLAs, six MLCs and senior leaders like K Keshav Rao, his daughter and Hyderabad Mayor Gadwal Vijayalaxmi from BRS have also switched loyalties.

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.