The Supreme Court on Monday issued a contempt notice to the Telangana Speaker for failing to comply with its direction to decide on disqualification pleas filed against 10 BRS MLAs, who had defected to the ruling Congress. On July 31, a top court bench led by Chief Justice BR Gavai had instructed the Assembly Speaker to decide the matter of the disqualification of the 10 Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs within three months. The Chief Justice-led bench termed the non-compliance of its earlier directions as the "grossest kind of contempt" while issuing notices to the Speaker and others on the pleas filed by the BRS leaders.
The bench, however, exempted the Telangana Speaker and others from personal appearance before it until further orders. The bench also issued notice on a separate plea filed on behalf of the Speaker's office, which was seeking an extension of time by eight more weeks to decide the disqualification pleas.
Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Abhishek Singhvi, appearing alongside lawyer Sravan Kumar for the Speaker's office, confirmed they were seeking the extension. One of the lawyers said that the hearing on four disqualification pleas is complete, and in three cases, the recording of evidence has concluded.
"This should have been concluded…This is the grossest kind of contempt…It is for him to decide where he wants to celebrate the new year," the Chief Justice remarked.
The bench has now posted the matters for further hearing after four weeks. Rohatgi assured the bench that he would personally convey the court's feelings to the Speaker's office and expressed hope that decisions would be taken in four weeks.
The contempt plea stems from the apex court’s July 31 judgement, delivered by a bench of the CJI and Justice AG Masih, in a batch of writ petitions filed by BRS leaders KT Rama Rao, Padi Kaushik Reddy, and KO Vivekanand.
The court reiterated that the Speaker acts as a tribunal when deciding disqualification pleas under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and, consequently, does not enjoy "constitutional immunity." The Tenth Schedule deals with provisions regarding disqualification on the grounds of defection.
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