High Court dismisses Vanama's plea

HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Thursday dismissed the plea of Vanama Venkateshwara Rao, who was on Tuesday disqualified as Kothagudem MLA, seeking suspension of the orders by 30 days.

Aggrieved by court orders holding his election as void and declaring Jalagam Venkat Rao, who polled the next highest votes, as MLA of Kothagudem with effect from December 2018, Venkateshwar Rao on Wednesday filed an interim application to suspend the orders till he files an appeal before the Supreme Court.

Justice Radha Rani on Thursday dismissed his application and noted serious prejudice would be caused to Venkat Rao if Venkateshwara Rao was allowed to be continued as MLA even after his election was declared void.

As per Section 116B of the Representation of People Act, for grant of suspension of the operation of the order sufficient cause has to be shown. No such cause was stated by Venkateshwara Rao, the judge said.

The judge directed the registry to immediately forward the order copy to Election Commission of India and Speaker of the Telangana State Legislative Assembly.