Telangana High Court MLC swearing-in stay: Legal dispute over MLC selection
Tuesday, in accordance with the recommendations put forth by the Congress government led by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy last week, the Telangana High Court stayed the oaths of two state legislative council (MLC) members appointed by state governor Tamilisai Soundararajan under the governor's quota.
Two Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders, Dasoju Sravan and K Satyanarayana, who were nominated as MLCs by the previous BRS government under the governor's quota but had their nominations rejected by the governor, petitioned the bench causing High Court intervention in MLC swearing-in.
MLC appointment controversy in Telangana:
The names of Sravan and Satyanarayana were recommended by the BRS government, then led by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, for the MLC positions subject to the governor's quota in August of last year. In September, Tamilisai, however, returned the file after more than a month of deliberation, rejecting the nominations on the grounds that they hold political and corporate allegiances, causing a legal halt on MLC induction in Telangana. Questioning the governor's decision to reject their nominations for MLC positions, the two BRS leaders petitioned the high court in December. Aside from directing the government and the governor to reach a gentleman's agreement, the high court that heard their petitions affirmed the status quo.
High Court intervention in MLC swearing-in:
In this case, the status quo was upheld by a division bench of the high court, which consisted of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Anil Kumar Jukanti. The matter of legal halt on MLC induction in Telangana was rescheduled for a further hearing on February 8.
On Wednesday, senior Urdu journalist Amer Ali Khan and retired Osmania University professor M Kodandaram, the newly nominated MLCs, are scheduled to take their oaths in the chambers of state legislative council chairman Gutha Sukhender Reddy, which is now paused due to the latest Telangana political developments.