The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by a disqualified Telengana Rastirya Samiti MLC R Bhupathi Reddy, who questioned the decision of the legislative council chairman to disqualify him under the 10th Schedule, saying it wasn’t a fit case for the top court to interfere with.
Reddy who disqualified on a complaint from the TRS party which said that he had been elected on the party ticket but had switched over to the Congress in December 2018. Reddy challenged the disqualification in the high court. He claimed that he never joined Congress party as was alleged. He also challenged para 8 of the tenth schedule of the constitution that bestowed powers on the council chairman.
The Telangana High Court in July last year which however threw out his petition seeking suspension of the disqualification order. The HC said it did not find any illegality in the order. Reddy had claimed that the grounds of defection did not apply to him as he had been unanimously elected as MLC from the Nizamabad local authorities constituency and not on the TRS symbol. In his petition, he elaborated on the distinction between a person being a member of a party and a person getting elected on a party symbol. As his election was not based on a party symbol, Bhupathi Reddy said, the disqualification petition filed against him by the TRS whips was liable to be rejected.
—India Legal Bureau