PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has adjourned a plea seeking disqualification of 10 ex-Congress MLAs to September 22. When the matter came up for hearing on Wednesday, Advocate Abhijit Gosavi sought adjournment citing non-availability of the petitioner’s advocate Kapil Sibal.
Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Girish Chodankar has challenged the Goa Legislative Assembly Speaker’s judgment dismissing his disqualification petition against the rebel MLAs. Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court Dipankar Datta had recently constituted a two-member Bench comprising Justice K K Tated and Justice Prithiviraj Chavan to hear the appeal, after Justice Mahesh Sonak recused himself from hearing the matter claiming that he had appeared ‘for some of the respondents earlier’.
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On April 20 this year, Speaker Rajesh Patnekar had dismissed two disqualification petitions filed by Congress president Girish Chodankar and MGP MLA Sudin Dhavalikar against their party MLAs for switching sides and joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019.
Dhavalikar has also filed an appeal before the High Court against the Speaker’s order. The MGP leader had sought disqualification of two party MLAs for defecting to BJP.
