Telangana unlikely to seek repayment of former MLA’s salary after disqualification
Telangana officials say the government is unlikely to recover salary and benefits paid to former Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender after the courts held that his disqualification took effect from April 23, 2024. Officials cite the absence of an automatic recovery provision or a specific court direction.
The Telangana government is unlikely to seek repayment of salary and other benefits received by former Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender after the courts held that he stood disqualified from April 23, 2024, officials said. The Telangana High Court issued the judgment on September 18, 2026, and the Supreme Court later upheld it. Nagender had filed his nomination as a Congress candidate for the Secunderabad Parliament seat on April 24, 2024, while continuing to be a Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLA.
The government declared the Khairatabad Assembly seat vacant through a Gazette notification on September 26. Officials are examining whether salary, allowances and other benefits drawn after April 23 must be returned. They said there was no provision for automatic recovery merely because a court subsequently imposed disqualification with retrospective effect.
They also said that no specific order directing recovery had been issued in the disqualification proceedings. An official said the government would comply if a court ordered repayment in a separate case. Officials argued that salary and allowances are paid for services rendered while a person is legally occupying a legislative position, and that a later legal challenge does not by itself make the person ineligible for remuneration.
They cited the case of Governor’s quota nominees M. Kodandaram and Amer Ali Khan as a precedent. Their appointments were made in January 2024 and stayed by the Supreme Court in August 2025; fresh appointments followed later, but officials said there was no recovery of salaries and allowances paid while they functioned as Members of the Legislative Council.
The question of recovery could still be raised before a court. The government has said it will follow any judicial direction.
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