Supreme Court warns contempt over delay in BRS MLAs disqualification

The Supreme Court on Friday told Telangana Assembly Speaker that contempt action would be initiated if he failed to decide within three weeks the disqualification petitions in connection with the defection of 10 Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs to the Congress.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and A G Masih told senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, who appeared in the matter for the Speaker, “We request you not to make reels out of it. This is what is happening. Do not do it. What is happening is, it is a new industry.”

The counsel said the decision has been taken in one case, and the Speaker is on the verge of taking a call in two other cases.

Singhvi said municipal elections were held in the state and sought three weeks for a decision on all the pending disqualification petitions.

The counsel, representing the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs, said the Speaker had sought time earlier as well and only a single meeting has so far been held by him in this regard.

The bench said in the previous hearing that the Speaker had sought three weeks, but the court had granted him two weeks to see if there was any development.

"We expect the Speaker to positively take a decision, failing which we shall proceed to issue contempt," the bench said.

On January 16, the court had said it is not keen on granting either four weeks or six weeks to the Telangana Assembly Speaker; he should apprise it in two weeks on the status of adjudication of disqualification pleas against BRS MLAs, who had defected to the ruling Congress.

The bench then gave two weeks to the Speaker to file a status report indicating the steps taken for the adjudication of the disqualification pleas.

The court on November 17, 2025, issued a contempt notice to the Telangana speaker for not complying with its direction to decide disqualification pleas against 10 BRS MLAs, who had defected to the ruling Congress.

The court had on July 31, 2025 directed the assembly Speaker to decide in three months the matter of the disqualification of the 10 BRS MLAs.

On the plea by BRS leaders, the court had observed the non-compliance of its earlier directions as the “grossest kind of contempt” while issuing notices to the speaker and others.