Ball is in Speaker’s court: Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to intervene in the Legislature matters of Telangana maintaining that it was up to the Speaker to take a decision in cases of defection.

Responding to the arguments of the Congress and the TDP in this regard, a bench of Justice Khalifullah and Justice Amitava Roy said there was little the court could do if the Speakers were sitting on the appeals of the political parties over the issue of defections.

Both the parties had filed petitions in the apex court seeking a directive to the Speaker of the Telangana State Assembly to initiate action against the legislators who had defected from their parties to the ruling TRS.

The petitioners contended that though the Speaker was expected to take action against the erring legislators within seven days, as many as 14 months had elapsed and no action had been taken against them.

Senior Counsels Ashok Desai and Venugopal, who represented the Congress and the TDP respectively, urged the bench to direct the Speaker to initiate action against those who switched over to the ruling party under relevant rules. However, the bench maintained that as the issue was under the jurisdiction of the Speaker, it could not interfere in the matter.

When the petitioners pleaded for an adjournment for two months to wait for the Speaker to act, the bench granted the time.