BRS MLC Venkatrama’s Election Challenged in HC
Court overrules Registry objections; petition questions validity of ex-IAS officer’s retirement
Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has decided to hear a writ petition questioning the continuance of former IAS officer P. Venkatrama Reddy as Member of the Legislative Council (MLC), be registered with a regular case number, overruling objections raised by the Registry.
J. Shankar ( Dharmapuri) challenged the legality of Reddy’s election before the High Court, contending that he was still a government servant when he filed his nomination.
Reddy, a 2007-batch IAS officer, was serving the Telangana Government until November 15, 2021, when he submitted a voluntary retirement notice under Rule 16(2A) of the All India Services Rules, 1958, with the intention of contesting the MLC elections as a Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) candidate.
The petitioner`s contention was that the state government accepted his request on the same day without forwarding it to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which is the competent authority to decide such matters. Rules mandate a three-month notice and Union approval for voluntary retirement of IAS officers.
An RTI reply from DoPT confirmed that no retirement papers of Reddy had been received, indicating that the process was bypassed.
Despite this, his nomination was accepted on November 16, 2021, and he was elected. The petitioner submitted that his continuance amounted to disqualification under Section 6(1) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and sought a writ of quo warranto to declare him ineligible.
The High Court Registry has raised some objections in the petition. However, on Tuesday, on the administration side, the Chief Justice A.K. Singh overruled the objections and directed the Registry to place the petition before the appropriate bench for the hearing.
