Telangana High Court on Thursday issued notices to respondents in a batch of three writ appeal petitions filed by the Assembly Secretary seeking suspension of a single judge order directing the Speaker to fix the schedule for hearing the disqualification petitions against three MLAs, who joined Congress after winning on BRS tickets.
Posting the three pleas to October 24 for final disposal, a Bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J. Sreenivas Rao issued notices to the Speaker and Election Commission of India, among others. The Bench also granted liberty to the petitioner to move it in case of a precipitative decision before October 24.
The other respondents included BRS MLAs Padi Kaushik Reddy and K.P. Vivekananda and BJP MLA A. Maheshwar Reddy, who filed writ petitions separately seeking disqualification of MLAs Danam Nagender, Kadiyam Srihari and Tellam Venkat Rao.
A single judge disposed off the three pleas directing the Speaker to fix a time for hearing. Advocate General A. Sudarshan Reddy said that the single judge order was against the verdict of the Supreme Court in the Kihoto Hollohon case. He told the Bench that even a Division Bench of the HC held that a HC cannot direct the Speaker to fix a time frame for disposal of disqualification petitions.
The AG said that if the single judge orders were not suspended, the Speaker may be compelled to initiate actions which would be in violation of the Supreme Court direction and against constitutional practices.
“The issue is whether the HC, in exercise of powers of the judicial review, can direct the Speaker to decide on the disqualification petitions within a fixed time-frame,” the Bench observed.
Published – October 04, 2024 05:13 am IST
