The Telangana High Court on Wednesday issued notices to seven MLAs and Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar in connection with the dismissal of disqualification petitions filed against the MLAs who have allegedly defected from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to Congress.

The Division Bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G M Mohiuddin directed the batch of petitions to be tagged along with a similar plea filed by BJP floor leader and MLA Alleti Maheshwar Reddy and adjourned the matter for further hearing on April 16.

T Prakash Goud (Rajendranagar), Venkat Rao Tellam (Bhadrachalam), A Gandhi (Serilingampally), Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy (Gadwal), Kale Yadaiah (Chevella), Danam Nagender (Khairatabad), and Srinivas Reddy Parige (Banswada) have been directed to file their counter affidavits.

The BRS has maintained that the Speaker’s decision to dismiss the disqualification petitions against the MLAs, citing a lack of evidence, was a mockery of the anti-defection law.

The writ petitions filed by BRS legislators Kalvakuntla Sanjay (Korutla), K P Vivekanand (Quthbullapur), Padi Kaushik Reddy (Huzurabad), Palla Rajeshwar Reddy (Jangaon), G Jagdish Reddy (Suryapet), and Chinta Prabhakar (Sangareddy) seek directions to set aside the orders passed by the Speaker as arbitrary, perverse, illegal and contrary to the provisions of the tenth schedule of the Constitution and the Rules of Telangana Legislative Assembly Members (Disqualification on the Ground of Defection) Rules, 1986 and consequently allow the disqualification petitions against them.

The counsel for the petitioners informed the court that all seven MLAs joined the Congress party in the presence of the then TPCC president and chief minister, A. Revanth Reddy, by wearing Congress shawls, and that the events were live telecast on TV channels and reported in newspapers the next day.

He added that the MLAs gave interviews to TV channels either before or after joining the Congress and participated in various programmes held by the party. One of them, Danam Nagender, contested on a Congress ticket in the Lok Sabha election, and another, Srinivas Reddy Parige, has been appointed as an advisor to the government with Cabinet rank, he added.

The counsel for Gaddam Prasad Kumar informed the court that the Speaker was also a Tribunal under the Tenth Schedule and said he was not a defending or contesting respondent but only had to maintain constitutional neutrality. The counsel for the petitioners contended that the Speaker had decided the disqualification petitions only after over a year, following the Supreme Court’s ultimatum.

The BRS earlier alleged inaction by the Speaker regarding disqualification petitions against 10 of its MLAs, who allegedly defected to Congress, and BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy then approached the Supreme Court. In July 2025, the Supreme Court directed the Speaker to decide on the petitions within three months.

In February 2026, the Supreme Court gave a ‘final opportunity’, directing Gaddam Prasad Kumar to ‘positively’ decide the matter within three weeks. Between December 2025 and March 2026, the Speaker dismissed the petitions citing ‘lack of conclusive documentary evidence’.