HC dismisses plea on disqualification

Hyderabad: Upholding the democratic norms, the two-judge PIL bench of High Court at Hyderabad failed to direct the Speaker of Telangana State Assembly from considering applications of disqualification of MLAs.

The bench voiced hope and trust that the Speaker will decide the disqualification matters as expeditiously as possible.The bench said that it has no jurisdiction to issue pre-decisional direction to the Speaker.

The bench of Acting Chief Justice Dilip Bhosale and Justice S V Bhatt pointed out that the Speaker was an independent constitutional authority.

The bench was dealing with a batch of writ pleas seeking declaration that even a procedural facet can defeat a substantive right and for this reason,

an adjudication on the petitions under the Article 191 of the Constitution cannot be limited only to law but to the essential concept of democracy and also further direct the Tribunal to dispose of the disqualification petitions pending before it as expeditiously as possible.

The batch of writ petitions was filed due to delay in adjudication of disqualification petition as contrary to law laid down by the Apex Court.

The writ petitions are filed for the effective disqualification of TDP, YSRCP and Congress MLAs for quitting their respective parties to join TRS.

The petitions were filed by Errabelli Dayakar Rao, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and SA Sampath Kumar of TDP, YSRCP and Congress respectively.