TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar on Thursday dismissed the disqualification petition filed against erstwhile Congress MLAs Michael Lobo and Digambar Kamat by Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Amit Patkar.
This is the first of the four disqualification petitions disposed of by the Speaker after 22 months.
In his disqualification petition, Patkar had sought disqualification of then Leader of the Opposition Michael Lobo and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat in July 2022, for voluntarily giving up membership of the Congress party by not attending the meetings of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) and becoming incommunicado with
the leaders of the Congress party.
Patkar stated that the duo since long had been conspiring with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to orchestrate a defection within the Congress party. Lobo did not attend the CLP meeting held on July 10, 2022, and on the same day he was spotted at the residence of the Chief Minister’s official residence. Kamat did not attend both the meetings held on July 9 and 10, 2022, and also on July 10, he said.
However, both the respondents claimed that they never gave up the membership of the Congress party as on July 11, 2022 the date on which this petition was filed and as such had not incurred the disqualification as claimed by the petitioner.
Both the MLAs stated that they had not voluntarily given up the membership of the Congress party till September 14, 2022, when there was a merger with the BJP. The respondents stated that they had attended the Assembly session from July 11, 2022, and had sat with the members of the CLP and continued to be members of the Congress till September 14, 2022, when there was merger with the BJP.
The Speaker in his verdict stated that he decided the case on the pleadings and the documentary evidence since the
petitioner did not lead any oral evidence in support of his case and also opposed respondents to lead oral evidence.
The Speaker further observed that the petitioner himself had filed another petition before him two months after incurring the alleged disqualification. The statement on oath of the petitioner clearly admits of the fact that as on September 14, 2022, the respondents were MLAs of the Congress party. This categorical statement of the petitioner belies his case that the two respondents by their conduct on July 9 and 10, 2022, had voluntarily given up the membership of the Congress party.
The Speaker said that the petitioner failed to prove that the two respondents had voluntarily given up the membership of the Congress party as on July 11, 2022 and consequently incurred disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, as claimed by him.
On April 15, 2024, the Supreme Court while hearing the petition filed by a Congress leader seeking speedy hearing in 2022 disqualification petition against eight rebel Congress MLAs, had observed that the delay was apparent in the matter and had directed the Speaker to expedite the petition.
Representing the Goa Assembly Speaker, Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani had told the Apex Court that disqualification petitions filed prior to the present petition shall be disposed first and then this disqualification petition will be taken up by the Speaker. The matter is now likely to come up before the Supreme Court on Friday, May 10.
