The Bombay High Court bench in Goa has directed the State Chief Secretary to file an affidavit on the health of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday, after the State government yet again sought more time to reply.
The matter will come up for hearing next on December 11.
The direction by Justice R.M. Borde was on a petition by Trajano D’Mello, who said the condition of the ailing Chief Minister was adversely affecting the State’s administration. Advocate Rohit Braz, counsel for Mr. D’Mello, told presspersons on Thursday that this was the third adjournment in the case on the State government’s request.
“The matter was first fixed for November 26, the State government asked for time to file its reply. Matter was, thereafter, fixed for December 4 and again the State government asked for time to reply. Now we brought to the notice of the Court that there have already been two adjournments. Today [Thursday] is the third time they are asking for an adjournment. The Court has directed them to file their reply by tomorrow, that is December 7, and the matter is coming up on December 11. They are required to give us a copy of the reply by tomorrow,” said Mr. Braz. “If they don’t file a reply, I will be satisfied personally that they have nothing to say to my petition and they admit to its contents.”
Mr. Parrikar is suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer and has not attended any official meeting or function outside his private residence for more than a month now.
Mr. D’Mello, in his petition filed earlier this month, requested that the court direct State Chief Secretary Dharmendra Sharma to have the Chief Minister’s health evaluated by a panel of doctors and release the medical report in the public domain.
Mr. Parrikar has not been seen in public ever since he returned from New Delhi’s All-India Institute of Medical Sciences on October 14 and was taken directly to his private residence near here in an ambulance. The Opposition has been demanding his resignation. Some coalition allies too have demanded that he hand over charge to one of his senior Ministers.
The Congress has already launched a State-wide campaign called “Jana Akrosh” to “invite public attention to the collapse of the administration due the Chief Minister’s ill-health.”