Team Herald
PANJIM: State Congress president Girish Chodankar, through his counsel, has urged the Supreme Court for an early hearing on the disqualification petition of 10 MLAs for defecting from the Congress to the BJP. He has sought a hearing on September 30, the tentative date listed for the case.
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The disqualification petitions filed against the ten MLAs by Chodankar, along with a petition against two MLAs filed by MGP MLA Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar, all who joined BJP, was to come up for hearing before the Apex Court on August 26.
“This is the fourth application we have made before the Supreme Court seeking an early hearing.
There is a need of urgency. The matter was supposed to come up on September 22 but it did not,” Chodankar told media persons.
Advocate Sahil Tagotra, in an application to the Registrar, Supreme Court, on Saturday, pointed out that the matter should have been listed for hearing on or around August 28, however, the matter is not listed in any cause list published till September 29.
He said that the tentative date being shown on the case status is September 30; and the matter may be heard on the day with urgency.
The petitioner had on August 30, moved an application, seeking a hearing in the matter on or before September 4. The matter was expected to come up for hearing on September 25, however, it did not.
“Since the main issue in the Writ Petition itself concerns inordinate delay by the respondent (Speaker Goa State Legislative Assembly), any additional delay in listing of the matter, despite specific directions of the Court to list the same, will irreversibly prejudice the petitioner’s case,” the application stated.
“The petition seeks directions to the respondent (Speaker), as the disqualification petition filed before him is pending for more than one year now,” it added further. The disqualification petition filed before the Speaker is pending since August, 2019.
At the hearing on August 11, the Speaker, while seeking two weeks time to file an additional affidavit in the disqualification petition had informed the Supreme Court that the information and documents required could not be completed on account of the COVID-19 situation in the State.
Speaker Rajesh Patnekar was recently discharged from the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC), where he was admitted earlier this month for cardiac related ailment.
