Defections of MLAs: HC adjourns hearing on BRS petitions

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing in the BRS petitions to July 22. They were seeking directions to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly to disqualify its MLAs who had since defected, including Danam Nagender, Venkat Rao Tellam and Kadiam Srihari.

Advocate General A. Sudershan Reddy argued before Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy in the writ petitions. He submitted that he required more time to put forth his arguments in the batch of writ petitions and cited the five-judge bench order passed by the Supreme Court, which said that the Speaker of the Assembly cannot be issued a direction to act upon pending disqualification petitions.

Further, the Advocate General prayed the court to dismiss the writ petitions filed on the ground that the petitioners have approached this court seeking a direction to the Speaker to act upon the disqualification petitions, just 10 days after they filed the disqualification petitions. On this ground alone, the writ petitions can be dismissed, he averred.

On other hand, counsels for the petitioners requested the court to direct the advocate general to conclude his arguments as the petitioners are apprehending that the delaying tactics in the name of arguments was to allow more BRS MLAs to defect.