Telangana high court rejects petition of disqualified MLC

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court dismissed the petition filed by disqualified MLC R. Bhupathi Reddy of Nizamabad, who had petitioned the court court to suspend the disqualification order issued against him by the Chairman of the Telangana Legislative Council.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akhter pronounced the judgement on Wednesday and said that it did not find any illegality in the order of the Council Chairman

The bench refused to interfere with Para 8 of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, which speaks about the power of the Council Chairman to disqualify a member and Rule 7(4) of the Members of the Council (Disqualification of Grounds of Defection), which were challenged by the petitioner.

Mr Bhupathi Reddy had stated that the rule does not lay down any criteria for the type of disqualification petitions that are to be directly dealt with by the Chairman under the power conferred under Para 6 of the 10 Schedule.

The clarified that Para 8 of the 10th Schedule and Rule 7(4) of the Members of TSLC are constitutionally valid.

The court had earlier upheld the disqualification of former TRS leaders Yadava Reddy and Ramulu Naik.