New Delhi, Aug 8 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed Telangana Congress MLA Aadi Srinivas’ petition challenging the Telangana High Court order for not granting any relief to him while declaring BRS leader and former MLA Ramesh Chennamaneni a German citizen and disqualifying him from contesting and holding public office.

Srinivas, who had secured the second-highest votes in four elections that Ramesh won since 2009, was not declared as the MLA from Vemulawada by the High Court.

Appearing for Srinivas, senior advocate Gaurav Agarwal submitted that even though the high court found Ramesh committed fraud on the country, he continues to draw legislative benefits, including pension.

The apex court bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and N.K. Singh, however, declined to interfere with the High Court order.

It ruled that the court can’t “resurrect” the matter as the term of the election contested and won by Ramesh is already over.

Srinivas had approached the High Court in 2019, challenging the election of Ramesh on the ground that he suppressed the fact that he is a German citizen.

In November 2019, the Ministry of Home Affairs cancelled the Indian citizenship of Ramesh on the grounds that he had held citizenship of Germany and had not fulfilled the stipulated norms while obtaining the Indian citizenship in 2009.

The High Court on November 6, 2024, ruled that Ramesh is a German citizen and imposed a fine of Rs 30 lakh on him for misleading the court for the last 15 years.

Ramesh was elected as MLA from Vemulawada for four consecutive terms (2009, 2010, 2014 and 2018), and Srinivas was runner-up in all these elections.

Srinivas had sought that he be duly declared elected representative for those terms, as he had secured the second-highest votes. He had also prayed for orders for the removal of Ramesh’s name from the official records of the Election Commission and the Assembly of Andhra Pradesh/Telangana.

Though the High Court, which pronounced the order on a writ petition filed by Ramesh challenging the cancellation of his Indian citizenship by the Central government, declared Ramesh a German citizen, disqualified him from contesting and holding public office and imposed a fine on him, it passed no orders to declare the petitioner as the MLA for the four terms.

In April, Ramesh paid Rs 25 lakh to Srinivas and Rs 5 lakh to the Legal Services Authority as directed by the high court.

Controversy surrounded Ramesh’s Indian citizenship since 2009, when he was first elected as an MLA on the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) ticket.

Ramesh retained the Vemulawada seat in 2010 in the by-election, which he contested as the candidate of TRS (now BRS). He was elected from the same constituency on the BRS ticket in 2014 and 2019

In the 2023 elections, BRS denied a ticket to Ramesh and fielded Lakshmi Narasimha Rao. He, however, lost to Srinivas of the Congress.

–IANS

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