The Supreme Court on Thursday, September 24, dismissed a petition filed by former Telangana MLA Danam Nagender, challenging a High Court order disqualifying him from the Assembly for defecting from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to Congress.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana observed that the Telangana High Court's judgement was based on a correct interpretation of law, LiveLaw reported. The bench reportedly said there was no ground to interfere with the High Court's decision.
Nagender, who won the 2023 Assembly election from Khairatabad on a BRS ticket, was one of the 10 MLAs who allegedly switched from BRS to Congress ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He even contested the Lok Sabha election from the Secunderabad constituency on a Congress ticket but lost to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP G Kishan Reddy.
Justice Bagchi reportedly referred to Nagender contesting as a Congress candidate in the Lok Sabha elections and said, “You had a fixed deposit as MLA. You tried for share market as MP, and now you lost the fixed deposit.”
The High Court had disqualified Nagender on September 18 under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, or the anti-defection law, setting aside a previous order by Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar.
The court pronounced the orders in two writ petitions filed by BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy and BJP MLA Alleti Maheshwar Reddy challenging the Speaker’s decision.
The Telangana Speaker had previously dismissed petitions from BRS to disqualify all 10 MLAs who allegedly shifted loyalties to the ruling Congress – Nagender, Tellam Venkat Rao, Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy, T Prakash Goud, Gudem Mahipal Reddy, Arekapudi Gandhi, Kale Yadaiah, Sanjay Kumar, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, and Kadiyam Srihari.
BRS working president KT Rama Rao welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision and said that the people of Khairatabad will soon give their verdict on “three years of betrayal, broken promises and misrule.”
Danam Nagender also said he welcomed the Supreme Court's verdict, and announced that he would contest the upcoming bye-election.