The Supreme Court of India has given Telangana Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar a week to decide on the disqualification petitions against 10 Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs who defected to the ruling Congress party. The court has warned the Speaker that failure to act within this timeframe could result in contempt of court proceedings.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) B.R. Gavai and Justices K. Vinod Chandran and N.V. Anjaria, is hearing a plea filed by BRS MLA Kaushik Reddy, who sought the disqualification of the 10 MLAs who switched from BRS to the Congress party. These defections occurred in batches between March and April 2024, following the Congress party's victory in the Telangana Assembly elections in December 2023.
The Supreme Court's intervention comes after the Speaker failed to comply with an earlier order issued on July 31, 2025, which directed him to decide on the disqualification petitions within three months. The deadline set by the Supreme Court expired on October 31. The court had also set aside a Telangana High Court ruling that no time limit could be imposed on the Speaker.
The defecting MLAs include prominent figures such as Danam Nagender, Kadiyam Srihari, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, and Tellam Venkat Rao. The BRS party's strength in the 119-member Assembly was 39 at the time of the defections. As the number of BRS MLAs defecting to the Congress Party was less than two-thirds of the BRS's strength in the Assembly, they could not get the protection of Paragraph 4 from disqualification.
The Supreme Court has emphasized that the Speaker does not enjoy constitutional immunity when acting as a tribunal under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which deals with disqualification on the ground of defection. The court has clarified its power to ensure that Speakers do not delay disqualification petitions until the end of the Assembly's term. The court stated that the primary objective of the anti-defection law was to curb the evil of political defections, and the sole purpose of entrusting the role of adjudication to the Speaker was to prevent delay and ensure an expeditious decision on disqualification petitions.
"Either it has to be decided by next week or face contempt. We have already held he (Speaker) does not enjoy constitutional immunity. It is up to him to decide where he wants to spend his New Year," CJI Gavai remarked.
The case has a complex history, with the appellants initially moving the Telangana High Court between April and July 2024, questioning the Speaker's inaction. On September 9, 2024, a single judge of the High Court directed the Secretary of the Assembly to place the disqualification petitions before the Speaker to fix a schedule of hearing within four weeks. The single judge held that if nothing was heard within four weeks, the matter would be reopened suo moto and appropriate orders would be passed. The Supreme Court has now set aside a Telangana High Court division bench ruling dated November 22, 2024, which had interfered with a single judge's direction for expeditious hearing.
The Supreme Court also directed the Speaker not to permit any MLA to delay the proceedings and warned that an adverse inference would be drawn against any such attempt.
