Defections on pause, counters on delay
High Court gave Danam and Bandla a ‘last indulgence’ two weeks ago. Telangana still waits while Congress gains from limbo.
The defection cases remain pending after the court’s “last indulgence” deadline.
The defection cases that decide whether BRS-won MLAs who later joined the Congress keep their seats are still where the last clear order left them: on June 25, a Telangana High Court bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin gave Danam Nagender and Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy a final two weeks to file counter-affidavits, with a week for replies, and said the batch of 10 matters would be listed together. The next date named then was July 22. According to two reports of that hearing, the court’s phrase was “last indulgence”.
That is the documented status. No fresh order from July 22 or from July 27–29 showed up in the accessible court material reviewed. The litigation remains live — and consequential for Assembly integrity — because the Speaker’s handling of disqualification pleas under the Tenth Schedule is under challenge by BRS petitioners Padi Kaushik Reddy and Kuna Pandu Vivekanand, and in a connected plea by BJP’s Alleti Mahesh Reddy concerning Danam Nagender, all recorded by the Supreme Court’s 2025 judgment.
The law is unambiguous about the point of the anti-defection rule — “to curb the evil of political defections motivated by lure of office” — and the Speaker acts as a quasi-judicial authority while deciding them. What is less urgent, apparently, is filing a counter on time when the delay suits the ruling Congress. Telangana can read a calendar. The court called it a last indulgence; the Congress government calls it Tuesday.