Defection pleas parked; clock still ticking
Telangana HC is hearing challenges to the Speaker clearing alleged BRS defectors. The law is clear on one thing at least: the Supreme Court told the Speaker to finish it fast. "Fast" met politics.
Petitions challenging alleged defections remain before the Telangana High Court while the Supreme Court’s deadline is under scrutiny.
The Telangana High Court has been hearing petitions challenging Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar’s rejection of disqualification pleas against BRS MLAs accused by the petitioners of shifting to Congress. A Division Bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin continued arguments this month; one listing on August 20 was adjourned to August 21, according to a report. The exact August 21 outcome is not yet confirmed from a public court record.
What is on record is the petitioners’ case: that an MLA can “voluntarily give up” party membership without a resignation letter — including by contesting on another party’s ticket or campaigning for it. They say the Speaker looked at everything except the Tenth Schedule test. The Speaker’s orders — which rejected the pleas, saying the MLAs had not legally defected — have not been published in full in the material reviewed, so his precise reasoning cannot be checked line by line.
Numbers are where the spin starts. Reports differ on whether the current High Court batch involves nine or 10 MLAs; the Supreme Court’s July 31, 2025 judgment records that disqualification proceedings were pending against 10 and directed the Speaker to conclude them within three months — without letting the MLAs protract the process. Those directions are clear; the compliance is less so.
Through August, the Bench also pressed on conduct inside the House — where the MLAs stood on whips, voice votes and Bills. Questions are not findings, and there is no High Court ruling yet that changes the Assembly arithmetic. But the BJP and Congress will recognise the shape here: when the law asks for clarity and you offer delay, courts tend to notice.
For the avoidance of convenient amnesia: it was the BJP-led Centre’s Supreme Court that told the Speaker to get on with it, and the MLAs accused of moving to the Congress are the ones the petitioners say should not be allowed to drag their feet. Telangana did its part by knocking on the High Court’s door; the Congress side of this story has not bothered to explain why “switching” should be painless and cost-free under the anti-defection law.