Telangana encouraging defections, says petitioner
The petitioner had alleged that the TS government was encouraging defections in a massive way.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the TS Assembly Speaker to inform before November 8 by what time he would dispose of the pending disqualification petitions filed by Congress Legislature Party against seven Congress MLAs who have defected to the TRS.
The Court had already issued notices to the Speaker and MLAs of various political parties who defected to the ruling TRS, seeking their response to the allegations that their conduct is contrary to the spirit of Constitution and anti-defection laws.
The petitioner had alleged that the TS government was encouraging defections in a massive way. When TRS came to power in 2014, it had only 63 MLAs. The strength of the ruling TRS party in the state assembly went up to 89 in 2016. This the petitioner alleged was made possible through huge defections engineered by the TRS. Ravi Shankar said the Speaker was not deciding on pleas for disqualification of the defectors.
In his petition, the complainant sought a direction to the Speaker to disqualify the legislators who had defected. He said he was aggrieved that despite submitting the petition to the Speaker, seeking disqualification of the MLAs, no action was taken for the last two years. Sampath Kumar has challenged in the apex court the dismissal of his earlier petitions filed before the High Court of Hyderabad for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state.