BRS Moves Supreme Court For Early Decision By Telangana Speaker On Disqualification Pleas Against 7 MLAs Who Defected To Congress

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and its MLAs have moved the Supreme Court assailing the Telangana Legislative Assembly Speaker's delay in deciding disqualification petitions filed in respect of 7 MLAs who contested the 2023 Assembly elections on BRS ticket but later joined the ruling Congress party in the state.

The MLAs (Respondent Nos. 2 to 8) whose defection is assailed by the petitioners include: Srinivas Reddy Parigi, Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy, Kale Yadaiah, T. Prakash Goud, A. Gandhi, Gudem Mahipal Reddy and M. Sanjay Kumar.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and K Vinod Chandran recently listed the case alongwith a plea filed by Telangana MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy (BRS) pertaining to the defection of 3 MLAs (Venkata Rao Tellam, Kadiyam Srihari and Danam Nagender) from BRS to Congress, where response has been sought from the Telangana Assembly Speaker as to what would be "reasonable period" in his perception for deciding the disqualification pleas. The said case is next listed on February 10.

In the instant case, the petitioners point out that elections to the Telangana Legislative Assembly took place on 30.11.2023 and the disqualification petitions were filed between 25.06.2024 to 16.07.2024. But, the Speaker has done nothing in the past 6 months. It is claimed that not even notice has been issued to the defecting MLAs on the disqualification petitions till date; therefore, "there is no likelihood of adjudication and conclusion of the Disqualification proceedings within in the remaining term of the Third Telangana Legislative Assembly".

With regard to defection of the respondent-MLAs, the petitioners state: "Respondents No. 2 to 8 having contested the elections on the Form-B issued by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi political party have joined the Indian National Congress political party by voluntarily giving up their membership of Bharat Rashtra Samithi as such incurred disqualification on the ground of defection as per Para 2 (1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India".

In support of the submissions, reliance is placed on Keisham Meghachandra Singh v. Manipur Legislative, where the Supreme Court held:

"Indeed, the Speaker, in acting as a tribunal under the Tenth Schedule is bound to decide disqualification petitions within a reasonable period. What is reasonable will depend on the facts of each case, but absent exceptional circumstances for which there is good reason, a period of three months from the date on which the petition is filed is the outer limit within which disqualification petitions filed before the Speaker must be decided if the constitutional objective of disqualifying persons who have infracted the Tenth Schedule is to be adhered to."

The petitioners further mention that the MLAs who defected are participating in Assembly proceedings and official Congress party programs/meetings, which is causing voters in Telangana to lose faith in the principles of democracy and on the 10th Schedule of the Constitution.

"[Respondents No.2 to 8 don't] deserve to be in the house even for a single day and contrary to that due to inordinate delay caused by the Respondent No.1 the Respondents No.2 to 8 are also participating in the voting process of the bills which is contrary to the constitutional mandate and the law laid down by this Hon'ble Court."

They also assert that the Speaker's inaction on earlier disqualification petitions (filed in respect of 3 BRS MLAs who defected to Congress) encouraged defection of the 7 respondent-MLAs. It is alleged that the Congress party openly supported the defections saying that the disqualification petitions will not be decided by the Speaker within the term of the Assembly.

In this backdrop, the petitioners seek a direction to the Telangana Assembly Speaker to issue notices to the MLAs who defected, as well as to decide the disqualification petitions filed against them in a time-bound manner, preferably on day-to-day basis within an outer limit of 4 weeks.

Appearance: AoR P Mohith Rao and Advocate J Akshitha

Case Title: KALVAKUNTLA TARAKA RAMA RAO AND ORS. Versus THE SPEAKER TELANGANA STATE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY AND ORS., W.P.(C) No. 82/2025