SC censures Telangana CM Revanth Reddy for mocking law against defection

The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed its strong disapproval of an alleged statement made by Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy in the state legislature that there would be no by-elections in the state even if the members of the Opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) switched sides to the ruling Congress.

A division bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and Augustine George Masih verbally observed: "If this is said on the floor of the House, your Hon'ble CM is making mockery of the Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law)."

The development took place during the hearing of a clutch of pleas seeking disqualification of Telangana MLAs - Venkata Rao Tellam, Kadiyam Srihari and Danam Nagender - who defected to the Congress after being elected on BRS tickets.


In November last year, the Telangana HC had directed the Speaker of the Telangana assembly to decide on these disqualification petitions within a "reasonable time." This was challenged before the apex court by two BRS MLAs - KP Vivekananda and PK Reddy and BJP MLA AM Reddy. The petitioners have protested the Speaker's failure to decide on the matter in a time-bound manner.

Justice Gavai verbally observed something being said in "Ramleela maidan" is different from something said on the floor of the House. "When politicians say something in the assembly, it has some sanctity... in fact the judgement(s) say that when we interpret laws, the statement of the Hon'ble CM on the floor of the House can be used for interpreting that statute," the bench observed.