Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Friday, August 21, reserved its verdict on two petitions challenging the Assembly speaker’s ruling that had cleared Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender of defection charges, with judgment set to be pronounced on September 16.
A division bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin reserved orders after hearing detailed arguments from counsel representing all sides in the case.
The pleas were moved by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Alleti Maheshwar Reddy and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy, both of whom had earlier petitioned the speaker seeking Nagender’s disqualification under the anti-defection law. Nagender was elected to the assembly on a BRS ticket but later joined the Congress.
Acting on Supreme Court directions in his role as tribunal chairman under the Tenth Schedule, the speaker had ruled that Nagender had not legally switched parties, prompting the two MLAs to move the High Court against that finding.
Counsel for the petitioners argued that Nagender’s decision to contest the Lok Sabha elections as a Congress candidate after being elected as a BRS MLA amounted to voluntarily giving up his original party’s membership, even without a formal resignation.
Contesting on another party’s ticket and campaigning for it should have weighed on the speaker’s decision, they submitted, adding that the speaker’s powers under the anti-defection law are open to judicial review and not absolute. The central question, they argued, was whether the legislator had voluntarily quit the party that got him elected, not whether the move affected the government’s stability or the party’s numbers in the House.
Appearing for Nagender, counsel countered that the claim he joined the Congress on March 17, 2024 rested only on his meeting with the chief minister and an AICC general secretary two days earlier, along with photographs of him wearing a tricolour party scarf.
Newspaper photographs and media reports, without any explicit declaration from Nagender himself, were not enough to prove voluntary defection, the counsel said, adding that Assembly records still list him as a BRS member.
The High Court is due to separately hear similar petitions against MLAs Kale Yadaiah, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, Kadiyam Srihari, Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy, T Prakash Goud, Arekapudi Gandhi, Tellam Venkat Rao and Sanjay Kumar, all accused of winning on BRS tickets before switching to the Congress.
