PANJIM: Advocate Aires
Rodrigues on Monday has filed a petition before the Bombay High Court at Goa
seeking directions to the Goa Government to comply with the mandate of Article
174 of the Constitution of India by either summoning a session or dissolving
the Goa Legislative Assembly.
Meanwhile, the matter
mentioned before a Division bench comprising of Justice F.M. Reis and Justice
Nutan Sardessai has agreed to hear the petition tomorrow.
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In the petition filed under Article 226
of the Constitution of India, Adv. Rodrigues has stated that surprisingly there
was no proposal by the Government to convene a Session of the Legislative
Assembly as required under the Constitution of India though the government was
duty bound to ensure that the constitutional mandate is followed.
“Government which defies the
Constitution or does not follow the Constitutional mandate cannot continue in
office even for a moment and requires to be dismissed and in terms of Article
174 of the Constitution it was the duty of the Governor to summon the House and
that six months should not intervene between its last sitting and the next
sitting” said Rodrigues
Pointing out that the Legislative
Assembly has to be convened and meet within six months of its last sitting, Rodrigues
in his petition submitted that since the last sitting of the Goa Legislative
Assembly was on August 31st 2016, the Governor was duty bound
to summon the House on or before 3rd March 2017.
“Supreme Court has held that Article
174 was mandatory and only when the State Assembly is dissolved or kept under
suspended animation in exercise of power under Article 356 of the Constitution,
that the mandate of Section 174 is not mandatory and continuation of the
Legislative Assembly without its meeting in compliance with Article 174 of the
Constitution would not only be a travesty of the Constitutional mandate but
also an absolute breakdown of the Constitutional scheme” he said
Adv. Rodrigues further stated that if
the Chief Minister refuses to recommend the convening of the Assembly Session
to meet the mandate of Article 174, that then in exercise of powers under
Article 174(2) (b) of the Constitution, the Governor has powers to dissolve the
Legislative Assembly.
