The Telangana High Court Single Bench, led by Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy, heard two writ petitions seeking a direction for the Speaker of the Telangana State Legislative Assembly to decide on disqualification petitions regarding three MLAs who recently switched from the BRS party to the Congress party. These MLAs are Tellam Venkata Rao, Kadiyam Srihari, and Danam Nagender.
During the hearing, it was revealed that the petitioners were prevented from entering the Speaker’s chambers by staff, forcing them to send the disqualification petitions through RPAD and email, which were not received by the Speaker’s office. The Speaker’s counsel mentioned that he had three months to act on the pending disqualification petitions and criticized the rush to seek court intervention.
After considering arguments from both sides, the Judge instructed the petitioners’ counsels to give the disqualification petitions to the Government Pleader for Law and Legislative Affairs and directed the Advocate General to ensure acknowledgment of receipt. The Judge also ordered the disqualification petitions to reach the Speaker’s office and adjourned the hearing to April 29 for an update.
The court was handling two writ petitions – one filed by Kuna Pandu Vivekananda, MLA from BRS party, and another by Padi Kaushik Reddy, MLA from the same party. Both petitions sought disqualification of different MLAs who switched to Congress. The hearing was scheduled to resume on April 29.
In another case, the State High Court Division Bench, led by Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Jukanti Anil Kumar, considered a PIL questioning the Election Commission of India’s decision not to transfer Excise department officials ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections in Telangana on May 13. The court reserved its decision on this matter after hearing arguments from both sides.
