HC directs MLA disqualification pleas to be sent to Speaker, adjourns hearing to April 29

Hyderabad : The Telangana High Court Single Bench comprising Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy on Thursday heard two writ petitions seeking a direction to the Hon’ble Speaker, Telangana State Legislative Assembly to take a decision on the disqualification petitions pending before the Speaker pertaining to the three MLAs of BRS party, who have recently joined the Congress party viz., Tellam Venkata Rao, Kadiyam Srihari and Danam Nagender at an early date.

During the course of hearing, Gandra Mohan Rao, senior counsel appearing for the petitioners informed the Court that they were restrained by the staff of Speaker from entering into the Speaker’s chambers due to which they were forced to send the disqualification petitions through RPAD and e-mail, which were not received by the office of the Speaker.

On the other hand, Raghuram, senior counsel appearing for the Hon’ble Speaker informed the Court that the Speaker has three months time to act upon the disqualification petitions pending before him and the petitioners have rushed to the Court, seeking a direction to the Speaker to act on the disqualification petitions which were filed in this month.

After hearing the contentions of the counsels appearing for both the parties, the Judge directed the counsels for the petitioners to hand over the disqualification petitions to the Government Pleader for Law and Legislative Affairs with a covering letter and directed the Advocate General to instruct the Government Pleader to acknowledge the same.

Further, Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy directed the GP for Law and Legislative Affairs to ensure that the disqualification petitions reach the office of the Speaker and adjourned the two writ petitions to April 29 to know whether the petitions have reached the Hon’ble Speaker or not.

The Court was adjudicating two writ petitions viz., one filed by Kuna Pandu Vivekananda, MLA BRS party from Quthbullapur village and mandal, Malkajgiri district, seeking a direction to the Hon’ble Speaker, TSLA to act upon the disqualification petitions dated 10-4-2024 via Registered Post and email seeking disqualification of Venkata Rao Tellam, MLA 119-Bhadradri Kothagudem, BRS party and Kadiyam Srihari, MLA 99 - Ghanpur (SC Reserved) Hanmakonda BRS.

The second writ petition filed by Padi Kaushik Reddy, MLA Huzurabad Assembly Constituency, BRS party, seeking a direction to the Hon’ble Speaker TSLA to disqualify Danam Nagender, MLA from Khairatabad Assembly Constituency BRS party for “defecting” into the Congress party.

The matter has been adjourned to April 29 for further hearing.

Orders reserved on EC not transferring Excise officials in view of LS polls

The State High Court Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Jukanti Anil Kumar on Thursday adjudicated the PIL (at scrutiny stage) questioning the action of the Election Commission of India in exempting the Excise department officials from the purview of its guidelines issued transferring all government officials working in various departments for the last three years to other place of work, other than the place of their existing place of work in view of the Parliamentary Elections to be held in Telangana on May 13.

Avinash Desai, Standing Counsel appearing for the Election Commission of India informed the Court that the Order dated 27-01-2024 of the ECI is applicable to all the officials working across the country.

The officials, who are deputed to work during the elections are divided into two categories core and non-core works and the Excise Department officials also play a crucial role as is played by other department officials viz., Revenue, Police etc.,during elections and their presence in the Parliamentary Constituency is a must as they play a vital role during the incidents where liquor, meant for distribution to the voters by various political parties is seized, and the process of seizure has to be done by these officials only.

The Division Bench was adjudicating the Public Interest Litigation (at scrutiny stage) filed by Bondili Nagadhar Singh, a retired government employee, resident of Tirumalgherry, Secunderabad, aggrieved by the inaction of the ECI in exempting the officials of the Excise department from being transferred out to some other place, other than the place they are working.

Orders were reserved.