SC Admits Defection Petition Against Telangana MLAs

The Supreme Court today admitted a petition filed by Telangana Congress MLA Sampath Kumar that challenged the defection of the Congress and TDP MLAs to the TRS.

In his petition, Kumar had challenged the defections and urged the apex court to disqualify the MLAs who he claimed had defected without following the due procedure of law. Upon viewing the petition, a division bench presided by Justice Kurien issued notices to Telangana Assembly Speaker Madhusudhana Chary who allegedly approved the defections without a proper review, and the Congress legislators who defected to the ruling Party, and asked them to submit their replies within three weeks.

In the 2014 elections, the TRS had won 63 Assembly seats, followed by the Congress which had won 22 seats and the TDP which had won 15 seats. Later, eight Congress MLAs, 12 TDP MLAs and some MLAs of other Parties defected to the TRS.

Sampath Kumar had earlier approached the Hyderabad High Court with his petition, only to be rejected both by the single and the division benches. The High Court apparently did not want to interefere in the matters of the State legislature. The Congress MLA then filed the petition in the Supreme Court, which was admitted immediately after a review.