Team Herald
PANJIM: Dy Chief Minister Manohar (Babu) Azgaonkar and Minister Deepak Pauskar have sought four weeks to file their reply to the disqualification petition filed against them by MGP MLA Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar.
Speaker Rajesh Patnekar had scheduled the hearing on Monday. “The petition filed by Sudin Dhavalikar was to be heard today but Sudin had also filed a rejoinder asking interim relief by restraining the two MLAs from voting,” Patnekar said.
He said the respondents sought four weeks for the main case and one week to reply to the rejoinder. “Once the replies come we will decide on the next date of hearing,” he said.
MGP in its reply filed before the High Court of Bombay at Goa, in a petition challenging the merger of the MGP breakaway group with BJP, had stated that Ajgaonkar and Pauskar have incurred disqualification after they split as MLAs because they failed to comply with the proper procedure.
The MGP president in the reply also stated that Ajgaonkar and Pauskar have not claimed that there is a merger of the original political party, but the sole claim is that the MG Legislative Party has decided to merge into the BJP. MGP said that such a claim is not contemplated in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India and runs contrary to the mandate of Para 4 of the Tenth Schedule.
