TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: The Supreme Court on Monday opined that the delay is apparent on the face of the disqualification case and orally directed the Goa Assembly Speaker to decide pending disqualification petitions against eight Congress rebel MLAs, at the earliest.
The Apex Court Bench comprising Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta heard Congress petition seeking directions to be issued to the Goa Assembly Speaker to hear disqualification petition pending against eight MLAs namely Michael Lobo, Digambar Kamat, Aleixo Sequeira, Sankalp Amonkar, Delilah Lobo, Kedar Naik,
Rudolfo Fernandes and Rajesh Faldessai.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing on behalf of petitioner, argued that the Speaker’s delay in deciding the disqualification petition for more than 17 months) is unjustified and immediate directions must be issued to the Speaker to decide the disqualification petition pending against eight MLAs in a time-bound manner and in accordance with law. The petition is pending since November 11, 2022.
The Goa Assembly Speaker was represented by Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, who informally gave an undertaking before the Court that the disqualification petitions filed prior to the present petition shall be disposed first and then the disqualification petition shall be taken up by the Speaker before the next date of hearing.
The Court accordingly fixed the matter three weeks from now to seek an update from the Speaker regarding the status of the pending disqualification petitions and whether the petition has been taken up or not.
In May last year, the High Court of Bombay at Goa while disposing a disqualification petition had hoped that the Goa Assembly Speaker would decide the disqualification petitions in time-bound manner.
