Telangana High Court Disqualifies BRS Defector MLA Danam Nagender

The Telangana High Court on Friday set aside an order by Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar and disqualified Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. A division bench headed by Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and including Justice G.M. Mohiuddin ruled that Nagender stands disqualified retrospectively from April 23, 2024, after he switched allegiance from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi to contest the Secunderabad Lok Sabha election on a Congress ticket. Nagender subsequently lost that parliamentary contest.

The high-stakes legal challenge originated from two writ petitions filed respectively by BRS Huzurabad MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy and BJP Nirmal MLA Alleti Maheshwar Reddy. The petitioners challenged the Speaker's March 11 order, which had earlier dismissed petitions seeking Nagender's disqualification under anti-defection laws. Counsel for the petitioners argued that Nagender had incurred disqualification under paragraph 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule by voluntarily giving up his BRS membership upon contesting on a rival party ticket.

The division bench examined the procedural history of the case, noting that the Assembly Speaker, acting as the Chairman of the Tribunal, had previously dismissed multiple disqualification petitions filed against defected legislators. In earlier rulings, the Speaker had claimed a lack of sufficient conclusive evidence establishing formal defection. The High Court rejected this reasoning in Nagender's case, establishing that contesting a parliamentary election on a rival party's ticket constituted definitive abandonment of the original political party.

During the proceedings, legal representatives for Nagender requested the bench to keep the disqualification order in abeyance to permit an appeal before the Supreme Court. The division bench rejected the request and formally declared the Khairatabad Assembly constituency seat vacant. Furthermore, the court directed its Registry to immediately communicate the operative verdict to the Assembly Speaker as well as the Election Commission of India.

The verdict triggered immediate political reactions across the state. Bharat Rashtra Samithi working president K.T. Rama Rao welcomed the high court ruling in a public post stating, "Satyameva Jayate !! BRS MLA Danam Nagendar who defected to Congress got disqualified by the Hon'َّة High Court today. The rest of the defectors will also meet the same fate soon."

Political analysts note that the judgment carries substantial weight for several similar disqualification matters currently pending before the judiciary. The Speaker had previously cleared multiple legislators who shifted allegiance following the 2023 Assembly elections, prompting the opposition to pursue legal remedies across multiple dockets in the High Court.