Telangana HC issues notice to Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender in defection case, seeks reply in 4 weeks

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday issued notices to Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender and the Telangana Legislature Secretary, directing them to file counters in response to a petition challenging the Assembly Speaker’s decision to reject a disqualification plea against the MLA.

HC seeks response on disqualification plea

Hearing a petition filed by BJP Legislative Party leader Alleti Maheshwar Reddy, the High Court admitted the case and ordered notices to be served to both Danam Nagender and the Legislature Secretary. The court has sought their response on the challenge to the Speaker’s order.

Petition challenges Speaker’s decision

Maheshwar Reddy has approached the High Court seeking to quash the order passed by Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar on March 11, which dismissed the disqualification petition against Nagender.

The BJP leader argued that the Speaker rejected the plea without adequately examining whether the MLA had voluntarily given up his membership of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

Allegations of defection

The petition stated that Danam Nagender, who was elected as a BRS candidate in the 2023 Assembly elections, contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Secunderabad on a Congress ticket without resigning from the BRS.

According to the petitioner, this amounts to voluntarily giving up party membership and attracts disqualification under the Tenth Schedule (Anti-Defection Law) of the Constitution.

Maheshwar Reddy also cited Supreme Court rulings in similar cases from Karnataka and Bihar to support his arguments.

Speaker cites lack of evidence

In his March 11 order, Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar dismissed disqualification petitions against Danam Nagender and another MLA, Kadiyam Srihari, stating that the petitioners failed to provide sufficient evidence proving that the MLAs had defected to the Congress.

The Speaker maintained that in the absence of concrete proof, provisions of the Anti-Defection Act could not be invoked.

Multiple petitions dismissed

The petitions against Nagender were filed by BRS MLA Kaushik Reddy and BJP MLA Maheshwar Reddy, while a separate petition seeking disqualification of Kadiyam Srihari was filed by BRS MLA K. P. Vivekanand.

With these decisions, the Speaker has now dismissed disqualification petitions against all 10 BRS MLAs who allegedly switched loyalties to the Congress in 2024.

Earlier dismissals

The Speaker had earlier rejected similar petitions in phases:

December 2025: Petitions against five MLAs — Tellam Venkat Rao, Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy, T. Prakash Goud, Gudem Mahipal Reddy, and Arekapudi Gandhi

January 15: Petitions against Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and Kale Yadaiah

February 4: Petition against BRS MLA Sanjay Kumar

In all cases, the Speaker consistently held that there was no sufficient evidence to establish defection, reiterating that the Anti-Defection Law was not applicable.