SC stays appointment of two Congress MLCs in Telangana

New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS) In a big setback to the Congress government in Telangana, the Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the appointment of M. Kodandaram and Amer Ali Khan as Members of Legislative Council (MLCs) under the Governor's quota.

The apex court's stay order came on a petition filed by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders Dasoju Sravan and Kurra Satyanarayana, challenging the nominations made by the state government.

The order came nearly a year after Kodandaram and Amer Ali Khan were sworn in as MLCs.

The petitioners had challenged the appointments on the ground that they had violated interim orders of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court observed that swearing-in after the interim orders was improper and made it clear that any appointments made under the Governor’s quota would be subject to the outcome of the ongoing legal proceedings.

While Kodandaram is the President of Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS), Amer Ali Khan is the News Editor of the Urdu daily ‘Siasat’

Both Kodandaram and Amer Ali Khan were nominated to the Council under the Governor’s quota after the state Cabinet again sent the recommendation to the Governor in early August last year.

They were nominated as MLCs in January, 2024 but the High Court had set aside the appointments in March on the petitions by Sravan and Satyanarayana, whose nomination as MLCs was recommended by the previous government of BRS in July 2023 but the same was rejected by then Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on the ground that the two were "politically aligned persons".

The High Court had quashed the Governor’s decision, rejecting the nominations of Sravan and Satyanarayana, and held that the Governor can only return the government’s recommendation for reconsideration.

Following the High Court order, the BRS leaders had requested the Governor to nominate them as MLCs. However, as the BRS had lost power to Congress, the Governor rejected the request.

Sravan and Satyanarayana had challenged the Governor’s refusal in the Supreme Court. As the High Court had not passed any orders to the Governor to nominate them, they pleaded with the apex court to give direction to the Governor to appoint them. The Supreme Court declined to pass any orders but made it clear that if the state and the Governor proceed further with appointing Congress nominees in the two vacant slots in the meantime, such appointments would be subject to the outcome of the pleas.

The state Cabinet on August 1, 2024, decided to once again recommend the nomination of Kodandaram and Amer Ali Khan as MLCs under the governor’s quota.

They were sworn in after the Supreme Court stayed the operation of the Telangana High Court judgment quashing the decision of then-Governor Soundararajan to reject the nomination of BRS leaders as MLCs.

Welcoming the stay order, BRS Working President K.T. Rama Rao termed it a blow to the BJP and Congress.

"In the past, when the BJP misused the Governor’s system to obstruct the proposals of two MLCs sent by the BRS, the Congress, which came to power later, recommended two other names while the process was still pending, thereby mocking democracy," he said on X.

BRS MLC K. Kavitha also hailed the decision of the Supreme Court. "If the BJP does not respect the great Indian Constitution, defeat is inevitable, and it should realise this now," she said on X.

She said that in the past, the BJP, by using the Governor as a shield, obstructed the appointments of MLCs recommended by her father and then Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s government under the Governor’s quota.

--IANS

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