Telangana HC upholds disqualification of two MLCs

The Telangana High Court on Wednesday upheld the Telangana Legislative Council Chairman's disqualification of two legislators belonging to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) for defection.

A division bench headed by Chief justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan dismissed the petitions by Ramulu Nayak and Yadav Reddy to strike down their disqualification.

The court, which had reserved its orders last month, observed that Council Chairman Swamy Goud acted constitutionally to disqualify the two Members of Legislative Council (MLCs).

As the lawyer of the two legislators sought orders to the Election Commission not to hold elections for the two seats till they move the Supreme Court to challenge the High Court verdict, the bench asked the poll panel to take note of the same.

Ramulu Nayak, Yadav Reddy and Bhupati Reddy of the TRS had defected to the Congress party before December 2018 Assembly elections. After coming back to power, the TRS sought disqualification of the three MLCs and the Council Chairman had disqualified them.

The trio had filed petitions challenging the disqualification. Bhupati Reddy's petition is still pending before the court as he also challenged the validity of Para 8 of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution that allow such disqualifications. IANS