SC gives last opportunity to Telangana speaker to decide on disqualification pleas against BRS MLAs

New Delhi, The Supreme Court gave a last warning to the Telangana Assembly speaker on Friday and said contempt action would be initiated if he fails to decide on the remaining disqualification petitions related to the defection of 10 BRS MLAs to the Congress within three weeks.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and A G Masih said this while hearing a contempt plea filed by the MLAs.

Justice Karol told senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, who appeared in the matter for the speaker, "We request you not to make reels out of it. This is what is happening. Do not do it. What is happening is, it is a new industry."


Singhvi said the decision has been taken in one case, while the speaker is on the verge of taking a call in two other cases.

Referring to the delay, the lawyer said municipal elections were there in the state and sought three weeks for a decision on all the pending disqualification petitions.

The counsel for the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs said the speaker had sought time earlier as well and only a single meeting has so far been held by him in this regard.

Justice Karol said at the previous hearing, the speaker had sought three weeks, but the court had granted him two weeks to see if there was any development.

"We expect the speaker to positively take a decision, failing which we shall proceed to issue contempt," the bench said.

On January 16, the top court asked the Telangana Assembly speaker to apprise it in two weeks of the status of adjudication of the disqualification pleas against the BRS MLAs, who had defected to the ruling Congress in the southern state.

It had given two weeks to the speaker to file a status report, indicating the steps taken for the adjudication of the disqualification pleas.

On November 17, 2025, the court issued a contempt notice to the Telangana speaker for not complying with its direction to decide on the disqualification pleas against the 10 MLAs.

On July 31 last year, the apex court had directed the speaker to decide the matter in three months.

It had termed the non-compliance of its earlier directions the "grossest kind of contempt", while issuing notices to the speaker and others on the pleas filed by the MLAs.

The court had also issued a notice on a separate plea filed on behalf of the speaker's office, seeking an extension of time by eight more weeks to decide on the disqualification pleas.

The contempt plea stems from the apex court's July 31 last year judgment on a batch of writ petitions filed by BRS leaders K T Rama Rao, Padi Kaushik Reddy and K O Vivekanand.

The court reiterated that the speaker acts as a tribunal while deciding on the disqualification pleas under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and consequently, does not enjoy "constitutional immunity".

The Tenth Schedule deals with provisions on disqualification on the grounds of defection.