Speaker’s clock runs slow, case runs on
Telangana HC listed challenges to the Speaker’s clean chit for 10 ex-BRS MLAs now with Congress for August 12. What happened that day is still not on the record — but the delay is.
The High Court’s review is listed; the underlying record remains awaited.
The Telangana High Court had set August 12 for a batch of petitions challenging Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar’s dismissal of disqualification pleas against 10 MLAs elected on BRS tickets who, petitioners say, later joined Congress — after the Speaker’s side asked for more time to place records. That listing date comes from a July 22 report that attributed its account to Maxim News. No August 12 order has been published that we could verify.
On June 25 the High Court had already given what it called a final three weeks for respondents to file counter-affidavits and to produce the original dismissal orders. The Speaker’s Tribunal was told to bring the papers. Whether it did so by August 12 is not on the public record we could find.
The Speaker finished clearing the decks on March 11 — dismissing the remaining petitions against Danam Nagender and Kadiyam Srihari, completing decisions for ten MLAs including Tellam Venkat Rao, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, M. Sanjay Kumar, Kale Yadaiah, Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy, T. Prakash Goud, Gudem Mahipal Reddy and Arekapudi Gandhi, according to reports from the time. His line then, as reported, was that petitioners hadn’t shown “voluntarily giving up” of BRS membership with sufficient evidence.
The Supreme Court has already underlined two relevant points: Speakers’ anti-defection decisions are subject to judicial review, and three months is the outer limit a Speaker should take to decide such petitions absent exceptional reasons. The High Court is now reviewing the Speaker’s calls. The Congress side benefited from those calls; it can start by helping the court see the files on time.