Telangana High Court Begins Hearing Pleas Against 10 Defected BRS MLAs

The Telangana High Court in Hyderabad on Wednesday began hearing petitions challenging the Assembly Speaker’s order dismissing disqualification petitions against 10 BRS MLAs who reportedly defected to the ruling Congress. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin took up the matter and will continue the hearing on Thursday.

The petitions were originally filed by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs seeking the disqualification of ten party legislators who switched over to the ruling Congress. The current legal proceedings focus on challenging the Assembly Speaker's decision to dismiss those disqualification pleas.

During the arguments on Wednesday, the petitioners’ counsels, K Vivek Reddy and Gandra Mohan Rao, specifically challenged the dismissal of the disqualification matter concerning Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender. The counsels contended before the court that the conduct of an individual who contested and won as an MLA on a BRS ticket, and subsequently contested the Lok Sabha elections on a Congress ticket, directly amounts to voluntarily giving up party membership.

Representing the BRS leaders, the legal team described the Speaker’s order as "perverse, unsustainable, and unconstitutional." They informed the bench that Nagender had denied any of the allegations regarding contesting and campaigning against the BRS, despite running for the Lok Sabha on a rival party ticket.

The petitioners' legal counsels relied on a ruling by the Supreme Court during their submissions. They argued that, according to the apex court's precedent, the moment an elected representative contests an election from another political party, they automatically attract disqualification. They stated that such a situation does not require any further evidence to establish defecting conduct.

Concluding their arguments for the day, the counsels argued that the Speaker had adopted a flawed approach to narrow his statutory jurisdiction. They contended that the Speaker came up with an imaginary interpretation by asserting that he could not look at events or occurrences happening outside the House, which ultimately led to the dismissal of the disqualification petitions against the lawmakers.

The division bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin will resume hearing the arguments in the case on Thursday.