Hyderabad: The Supreme Court on Thursday, August 6, questioned how the Telangana High Court could pass an ex parte verdict against Gadwal MLA Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy when notices had not reached him, and indicated it would direct the High Court to hear the case afresh.
According to ABN, a bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice R Mahadevan was hearing Krishna Mohan Reddy’s appeal against the High Court’s August 2023 order that had set aside his 2018 election from Gadwal and declared BJP leader DK Aruna the winner with effect from December 12, 2018. The High Court had also fined Krishna Mohan Reddy Rs 2.5 lakh for filing what it called a false election affidavit. He challenged that verdict before the Supreme Court on August 31, 2023.
Senior advocates Aditya Sondhi and Mohit Rao, appearing for Krishna Mohan Reddy, told the bench that the High Court’s notices had gone to one B Anantha Reddy instead of their client, yet the court proceeded to rule against him without giving him a hearing.
They said the allegation that he had concealed assets was baseless, arguing that the land in question had already been sold through a registered sale deed before he filed his election affidavit, and that his bank accounts held only Rs 16,000 to 18,000. They further alleged that while other respondents in the case were served through newspaper publication, Krishna Mohan Reddy alone was denied that route.
Advocate Beena Madhavan, representing DK Aruna, countered that the notices had been sent by registered post to the address given in Krishna Mohan Reddy’s own affidavit, and that under the General Clauses Act, service to a correctly addressed recipient is deemed valid service.
The bench was not persuaded. It asked how the notices could be treated as received by Krishna Mohan Reddy when the signature on the acknowledgement did not match his. It observed that once the High Court noticed the mismatch in signatures, it ought to have issued fresh notices or resorted to a paper publication instead of proceeding ex-parte. On that basis, the bench indicated it would set aside the ex-parte verdict and direct the High Court to take up the matter again.
The advocate for DK Aruna sought more time, and the Supreme Court adjourned further hearing to August 25.
Krishna Mohan Reddy, who won the Gadwal seat in the 2018 Telangana Assembly election defeating Aruna by over 28,000 votes, also retained the seat in the 2023 election. He was elected on a Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) ticket in both polls.
