HYDERABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday disposed of petitions filed by BRS leaders seeking disqualification of 10 of the party’s MLAs for allegedly defecting to the Congress after the 2023 assembly elections in Telangana.A bench of Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Augustine George Masih disposed of the batch of petitions after Abhishek Manu Singhvi, speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar’s counsel, told the Court that the inquiry into the disqualification petitions had been completed and the final order had been passed.All ten have been given a clean chit after the speaker said that he did not find enough evidence to establish that they had crossed over.The bench observed that once the speaker had taken a decision on the complaints, there was no need for the court to continue hearing the matter. “It is not in dispute that, as of today, the court’s directions stood fully complied with,” said the bench, adding that the petitioners had not been given copies of the speaker’s order. The speaker’s office must supply the entire material to the petitioners, the judges said.In response, Singhvi submitted that the orders would be supplied in two days and other material would be supplied in four days.The apex court had initially directed the speaker to expedite proceedings on the defection applications against the 10 legislators.Subsequently, in a contempt plea filed over the court’s orders not being complied with, the judges had warned of sending the speaker to prison, and gave him a fixed deadline to take a call on the defections. The speaker disposed of the applications in a phased manner, with the last two applications being disposed of on March 11, just a day before the Supreme Court was set to hear the case.
