Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has reserved its judgment on a petition filed by chief minister A Revanth Reddy seeking to quash a case registered against him in a lower court over remarks made during last year’s Lok Sabha election campaign at a “Janajathara” public meeting.
The case stems from a private complaint filed by BJP State General Secretary Kasam Venkateshwarlu in a Nalgonda district lower court. Venkateshwarlu alleged that Revanth Reddy, during his speech at the Janajathara meeting, claimed the BJP would abolish reservations if it came to power, which he argued was defamatory and damaging to the party’s reputation.
The complaint was admitted by the court for further proceedings, and audio and video recordings of the speech were submitted as evidence.
In response, chief minister Revanth Reddy approached the High Court, requesting that the case be dismissed. Senior advocate T Niranjan Reddy, representing the chief minister, contended that there was no evidence that the complaint had the official sanction of the BJP leadership and argued that registering a case over political speech was not tenable.
On the other hand, the complainant’s counsel maintained that any individual can file a complaint when an offence is alleged, and party approval is not required. They cited several legal precedents to support this argument.
After hearing arguments from both sides, Justice K Lakshman reserved the verdict on the petition. The date for the delivery of the judgment has not yet been announced.
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