TRS MP Patil faces SC setback

Hyderabad: The Supreme Court set aside a dismissal order issued by the Telangana High Court over a petition contesting the election of Bheemrao Basanthrao Patil as an MP from the Zaheerabad Parliament constituency on a TRS ticket. The top court further directed the Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court to reconsider the case from the start.

The apex court passed the order on an appeal filed by petitioner K. Madan Mohan Rao, who had contested against Patil on a Congress ticket and lost by a slim margin.

Rao initially filed a petition with the High Court in 2019, claiming that B.B. Patil failed to disclose criminal cases filed against him in the election affidavit, which was submitted at the time of filing the nomination. He contended that it was against the norms and that Patil's win should be voided.

However, the High Court dismissed the petition on June 15, 2022, without specifying a reason. An order copy was not available even three months since the petition was dismissed.

Rao then approached the Supreme Court, challenging the High Court order. A bench of Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Bela M. Trivedi of the top court set aside the High Court order, mentioning that litigants cannot be expected to wait indefinitely for reasons.

"We find no reason that the appellant be relegated to the statutory remedy of appeal and we are clearly of the view that the order dated 15 June 2022 passed by the High Court deserves to be disapproved only for the reason that even until this date, the reasons for the said order are not available with either of the parties nor on the website of the High Court," the bench said.