MLAs’ disqualification: SC adjourns hearing for 2 weeks

NT NETWORK

Panaji

The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned for two weeks hearing related to a petition filed by the Congress party on disqualification of ten Goa legislators.

The Congress party has filed the petition before the apex court, seeking directions for expediting decision on a disqualification plea it has filed before the Speaker of Goa legislative assembly against ten MLAs, who deserted the party and joined the ruling BJP in July 2019.

The matter came up for hearing in the apex court on Friday and later it was adjourned for two weeks.

Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Girish Chodankar has filed disqualification plea against Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant ‘Babu’ Kavlekar, Revenue Minister Jennifer Monserrate, Water Resources Minister Filipe Nery Rodrigues, MLAs Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate, Nilkanth Halankar, Antonio Fernandes, Francisco Silveira, Clafasio Dias, Isidore Fernandes and Wilfred D’Sa, who had joined BJP in July 2019 by deserting the Congress party.

The counsel representing the MLAs told the court that even though all the respondents have been already served notices on their official e-mails, they were unable to access the e-mails.

Accordingly, the apex court has asked the petitioners to serve them the notice again by e-mail while granting two weeks’ time to file reply.

This particular petition has been filed by the Congress party against Speaker of Goa legislative assembly Rajesh Patnekar for not disposing of the

disqualification plea filed before him.

The Speaker in his affidavit on Thursday had justified the delay in pronouncing the verdict in the disqualification petitions filed by Congress and MGP against ten and two MLAs, respectively, citing the reason of the worsening COVID-19 situation in the state. 

MGP leader Ramakrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar has filed a disqualification petition against Deputy Chief Minister Manohar ‘Babu’ Ajgaonkar and Minister for Public Works Deepak Pauskar, who had joined BJP by splitting from the oldest regional party in March 2019.

The MGP has also filed a petition in the apex court against the Speaker, seeking directions for expediting hearing and disposing of the plea within a time frame.