New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed operation of the Telangana High Court order setting aside the election of BRS MLA from Gadwal, Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy, for furnishing a false affidavit with his nomination form about his assets during the 2018 Assembly polls.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta issued notice and sought response from the nearest rival D.K. Aruna and others within a period of two weeks. Aruna, who had contested the elections as a Congress candidate, is now with the BJP and serves as its national Vice President.
The bench also granted a period of three weeks to the petitioner for filing a rejoinder, if any. As per the details available on the website of the apex court, the plea is likely to be taken up on November 11 for further hearing.
Senior advocate Aryama Sundaram and advocate Mohith Rao represented the petitioner before the top court. In its order on August 24, the Telangana High Court recognised Aruna as the returned candidate after declaring Krishna Mohan’s election as void from December 2018.
It had also imposed a fine of Rs 2.5 lakh on Krishna Mohan and directed him to pay another Rs 50,000 to Aruna towards legal expenses. In 2019, Aruna had instituted a petition before the High Court seeking to set aside BRS MLA’s election from Gadwal Assembly constitutency.