The Telangana High Court on Friday refused to interfere with the powers of Legislative Assembly Speaker G Prasad Kumar to order disqualification of legislators who defected from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to the Congress, asking the speaker to address the grounds within “reasonable time

A division bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao set aside the judgment given by a single bench of Justice B Vijaysen Reddy on September 9 and directed Telangana Legislative General Secretary Dr Narasimha Charyulu to decide on the grounds of disqualification pending before the Assembly Speaker within four weeks.

The division bench delivered the verdict after hearing the arguments of three appeals filed by Charyulu challenging the order of the single judge bench and its legal validity in view of the powers vested in the Speaker at a pre-judge stage.

The division bench refused to impose any time frame on the speaker to decide on the disqualification petitions. The bench, however, asked the speaker to decide the grounds within a reasonable time. Justice Aradhe said the Speaker, as the President of the Court constituted under Schedule 10 of the Constitution, must bear in mind the purpose of that Schedule and the resulting anti-defection law. “The speaker must also keep in mind the tenure of the current assembly and resolve the pending disqualification petitions before him within reasonable time,” he said.

The assembly secretary argued in his plea that the courts can review its decision only after the speaker has made a decision and not before that.

The pending appeals relate to three legislators – Danam Nagender, Kadiam Srihari and Tellam Venkat Rao – – who were elected on BRS tickets and later switched to the Congress without resigning their legislative posts.

While BRS leaders Padi Kaushik Reddy and KP Vivekananda filed three separate pleas for disqualification of all MLAs, BJP assembly leader Aleti Maheshwar Reddy filed a separate plea for disqualification of Danam Nagender who fielded as Congress candidate in Secunderabad Lok Sabha see. immediately after being elected Khairatabad MLA on a BRS ticket.

On September 9, Justice Vijaysen Reddy gave four weeks to the speaker of the state legislature, G Prasad Kumar, to decide on these disqualification petitions. He urged the Secretary of the State Assembly to immediately place the file relating to the disqualification petitions to the Speaker. The judge also directed the speaker of the assembly to decide on the pleas within four weeks.

While disposing of the petitions, the court indicated that the case would be reopened suo motu if the speaker did not decide within four weeks. This was challenged before the Division Bench by the Secretary of the State Assembly.