3 min readHyderabadMar 24, 2026 10:28 AM IST
Days after Telangana Legislative Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar dismissed the disqualification petition against Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender, BJP floor leader and Nirmal MLA Alleti Maheshwar Reddy Monday challenged the decision in the Telangana High Court. Reddy claimed that Nagender ought to have been disqualified since he contested the Lok Sabha polls on a Congress ticket while having won as MLA from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).
Senior advocate K Vivek Reddy, appearing for the BJP MLA, referred to legal precedents and contended that Nagender ‘voluntarily’ gave up his primary membership of BRS from the moment he filed his nomination with the Congress.
The division bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G M Mohiuddin issued notices to Nagender and the Speaker and adjourned the matter for further hearing on April 16. The bench asked them to submit their counter-affidavits within four weeks.
The petition seeks to quash the Speaker’s order dismissing the disqualification petition and to direct the return of all benefits, including the salary as MLA. The petitioner contended that Nagender stands disqualified under 2(1)(a) of the tenth schedule of the Constitution from the date of filing of the nomination affidavit for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, i.e., April 23, 2024.
The defection row
Alleging inaction on the part of the Speaker regarding the disqualification petitions against 10 BRS MLAs who allegedly defected to Congress, BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy had approached the Supreme Court. In July 2025, the Supreme Court directed the Speaker to decide on the petitions within three months.
In February 2026, the Supreme Court gave a ‘final opportunity’, directing the Speaker to ‘positively’ decide the matter within three weeks. On March 11, the Speaker dismissed the petition citing ‘lack of conclusive documentary evidence’. Nagender has maintained that he continues to be with the BRS and had met Chief Minister A Reenth Reddy regarding the development of his constituency.
During the hearing, Vivek Reddy submitted that they had approached the High Court in view of a Supreme Court ruling in the 2020 Karnataka MLA disqualification case, which directed the petitioners to approach the High Court to deal with the matter expeditiously. He cited a precedent in the Supreme Court ruling in Mahachandra Prasad Singh Vs Chairman, Bihar Legislative Council, and said the facts were identical to the present case.
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“You can’t simultaneously hold affiliation to two political parties. By contesting for Congress, he campaigned against BRS. The day he filed his nomination is the date of disqualification according to us,” he submitted.
He argued that the findings of the Speaker, such as the party’s numerical majority in the house, are not affected, the member in question is not trying to destabilise the government, etc., were alien to the tenth schedule.
Citing the Supreme Court ruling in the Kihoto Hollohan vs. Zachillhu case, he said that the Speaker’s decision could be challenged on four grounds – Constitutional mandate, perversity, natural justice and malafide. Recording the submissions, the bench adjourned the matter.
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