Disqualification of BRS MLAs: SC to hear plea against Telangana speaker on Nov 17

The Supreme Court will hear a petition on November 17 seeking contempt proceedings against the Telangana Speaker for allegedly not complying with the order to decide the disqualification plea against 10 BRS MLAs who defected to the ruling Congress.

On July 31, a top court bench headed by Chief Justice BR Gavai directed the Speaker to decide the issue of disqualification of 10 Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLAs within three months.

On Monday, November 10, 2025, an attorney mentioned the contempt petition for an emergency hearing, saying the speaker had failed to act within the three-month period.

“Get it on the list next Monday,” CJI Gavai said.

Expressing concern about the delay, the lawyer said that the defendants “for obvious reasons postponed the case until the end of the month”; This was a clear reference to CJI Gavai’s retirement on November 23.

“The Supreme Court will not close after November 24,” the CJI said.

The lawyer representing the petitioners also stated that no action has been taken since the court’s July 31 order.

“The MLAs are still going ahead. The Lords had decided that if any MLA tries to extend the proceedings, there will be an adverse outcome. Two petitions are pending. The Speaker has not touched them. Others are at the evidence stage,” the lawyer said.

The contempt allegation arises from the top court’s July 31 order passed by the CJI Bench and Justice AG Masih in a batch of writ petitions filed by BRS leaders KT Rama Rao, Padi Kaushik Reddy and KO Vivekanand.

The high court reiterated that the speaker was acting as a tribunal in deciding disqualification requests under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and therefore did not have “constitutional immunity”.

The Tenth Schedule sets out the provisions relating to disqualification for asylum.

“The foundations of our democracy are shaken when elected representatives are allowed to continue their duties without a timely decision. Parliament had trusted the high office of the Speaker to act quickly. This trust was not fulfilled in many cases,” the bench said.