Telangana HC sets aside single judge order in MLAs disqualification pleas

Fri Nov 22 06:03:51 UTC 2024: ## Telangana High Court Overturns Order on MLA Disqualification

**Hyderabad, November 22, 2024** – The Telangana High Court today overturned a single judge’s order that mandated the Assembly Speaker’s office to set a timeline for deciding on the disqualification of three Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs who defected to the ruling Congress party.

The appeals were filed by the Legislative Assembly secretary challenging the September 9th order. The petitions for disqualification were initially brought by two BRS MLAs, K.P. Vivekanand and Padi Kaushik Reddy, and the BJP floor leader, A. Maheshwar Reddy. They targeted Danam Nagender, Tellam Venkat Rao, and Kadiyam Srihari, who won the 2023 Assembly elections on BRS tickets before switching parties.

A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J. Sreenivas Rao, ruled that while the Speaker must decide on the disqualification issue, they are not bound by a court-imposed deadline. The court instead instructed the Speaker to act within a “reasonable time.”