Defections on TV, justice on pause
Telangana HC is still assembling paperwork on BRS petitions against Congress-bound MLAs. The slow-walk began with the Speaker; the BJP cheered from the sidelines. Telangana waits.
Defection petitions remain pending as court deadlines move on.
The Telangana High Court’s defection batch is still where the Congress would like it: not decided. On March 25, a division bench issued notices to seven MLAs and to Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar in challenges filed by BRS legislators to the Speaker’s dismissal of disqualification pleas, and tagged a related petition by BJP floor leader Alleti Maheshwar Reddy. It was posted for April 16. According to court reporting, deadlines to file counters slid from May 6 to June 26 — when the court gave Danam Nagender and Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy a final opportunity and listed it for July 22. What happened on July 22 is not on the record we could fetch.
The petitioners’ counsel told the court the MLAs publicly joined the Congress — scarves, television coverage, even Lok Sabha candidacy in one case — and that the Speaker tossed the petitions anyway. That is their allegation, not a High Court finding yet. The reported reason given in the Speaker’s orders — lack of “conclusive” documents — also comes via court reporting, not a published order here.
Upstream, the Supreme Court’s own record in a connected matter notes that when asked for a timeline, the Speaker’s side said no such assurance could be made. The Court issued notice to avoid any later lectures about natural justice. Which is a careful way of saying: move it along.
What is known is narrow and telling: notices went out, counters dragged, and two Congress-side respondents were given a last chance as late as June 26. What is missing is the bit the Congress-led government would rather not hurry — an adjudication. Telangana can see who benefits from the delay; it is not the voter who watched those scarves go on.