Team Herald
PANJIM: Eight rebel Congress MLAs facing disqualification petitions for joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday filed their replies before the Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar, seeking dismissal of both the petitions, arguing that they were not filed by the sitting MLAs.
The eight MLAs claimed that only sitting MLAs can file disqualification petition and not those who are not the Members of the House.
The Speaker held hearing on two disqualification petitions filed by Domnic Noronha against eight rebel MLAs and Goa Congress president Amit Patkar against the then Leader of the Opposition Michael Lobo and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat filed in July last year on grounds that the duo had voluntarily given up the Congress party’s membership.
During the first hearing, Noronha requested for four weeks time to file his reply and the same was granted by the Speaker, who posted the matter for next hearing on May 29.
Later, when the Speaker took up Patkar’s petition for hearing, some of the respondents sought postponement stating that their lawyer was out of station, However, Patkar’s lawyer insisted that a short date be given. Following this, the Speaker postponed the matter to April 26 at 5 pm.
