PANAJI: The speaker of the Goa legislative assembly, Rajesh Patnekar, on Thursday issued notices to Congress president Girish Chodankar and MGP’s senior leader Ramkrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar to be present in his chamber on April 20 in the disqualification petitions filed against 10 former Congress MLAs and two ex-MGP MLAs. Patnekar is likely to pass an order on April 20, on both disqualification petitions.
Patnekar recently told the Supreme Court (SC) that he would pass a final judgment in the disqualification petitions against 10 former Congress MLAs and two ex-MGP MLAs on April 20, instead of April 29.
The SC has now fixed the matter for April 22. Congress had filed the petition before the apex court seeking a direction to expedite the disqualification petition filed against its 10 former MLAs.
The application filed before the speaker by the 10 former Congress MLAs for cross-examination of Chodankar and the application for leading evidence are dismissed, while the application for extension of time to file a written statement is allowed. The 10 former Congress MLAs have already filed their replies.
In August 2019, Congress had filed a disqualification petition before the speaker against the 10 MLAs who quit the party and joined BJP in July. Chodankar, who had filed the plea, had sought that the 10 MLAs be restrained from attending assembly proceedings and holding constitutional posts till the case was decided by the speaker.
MGP had also filed a disqualification petition against deputy chief minister Manohar Ajgaonkar and PWD minister Deepak Pauskar, who had quit the party to join BJP in March 2019.
It may be recalled that on July 10, 2019, rebel Congress MLAs led by deputy chief minister Chandrakant Kavlekar joined BJP claiming that Congress legislature party had split.
The other nine MLAs were Isidore Fernandes, Nilkanth Halarnkar, Jennifer Monserrate, Antonio Fernandes, Francisco Silveira, Wilfred D’Sa, Clafasio Dias, Filipe Neri Rodrigues and Atanasio Monserrate.