NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday once again came down heavily upon Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy's statement in the assembly that there would be no bye-elections, saying he was expected to exercise "some degree of restraint".
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Augustine George Masih asked, "Did we commit a mistake by letting him go at that time and not taking an action for contempt?"
The court was referring to another matter in which it had last year disapproved of Reddy's comments on the top court granting bail to rival BRS leader K Kavitha in cases linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.
The court made the observations during the arguments on the pleas raising the issue of alleged delay by the Telangana Assembly Speaker in deciding on petitions seeking disqualification of 10 BRS MLAs who had defected to the Congress.
Before the bench reserved its judgment, the issue over Reddy's recent statement in the assembly was raised before the bench.
"Having experience of earlier occasion, was the chief minister not expected to at least exercise some degree of restraint," the bench asked senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, who was appearing for the Speaker.
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The court said it was not bothered about statements of politicians.
"We exercise self-restraint. We respect the other two wings of the democracy. Same is expected of the other two wings also," he said.
Senior advocate C A Sundaram, representing the petitioner and BRS leader Padi Kaushik Reddy, called the CM's statement as shocking, while referring to the transcripts.
The counsel pointed out, a BRS MLA had said in the assembly that this should not be raked up as the matter was pending before the apex court but the Chief Minister still made the statement.
Sundaram quoted the Chief Minister's statement as saying, "Mr Speaker, I am telling on your behalf to everyone present in the assembly that they need not worry about any bye-elections in future. No Bye-elections will come".
The counsel said when the Chief Minister made the statement, the Speaker did not say anything.
During the hearing, the court sought to know what would be the "reasonable period" for a Speaker to decide on the disqualification petitions.
The bench asked whether such applications for disqualification "should be permitted to die its natural death and the Tenth Schedule be thrown in the dustbin?".
The Tenth Schedule of the Constitution deals with provisions on disqualification on the ground of defection.
Sundaram requested the bench to put a time limit for deciding the disqualification petitions, referring to it as an "extraordinary situation".
Reddy had allegedly said in the assembly on March 26 that there would be no bye-elections even if BRS members switched sides.
"If this is said on the floor of the house, your Chief Minister is making a mockery of the Tenth Schedule," the bench said on April 2.
The court had questioned the Speaker as to why he took about 10 months to issue notices on the petitions for the disqualification of BRS MLAs who defected to the Congress.
