Team Herald
PANJIM: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked Goa Assembly Speaker to fulfill his constitutional obligation, while deciding disqualification pleas against eight rebel Congress MLAs before postponing the matter for further hearing in November.
The Apex Court Bench co comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar was hearing a special leave petition (SLP) seeking directions to Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar to decide former Congress president Girish Chodankar‘s disqualification petition within a time-frame.
“We hope and trust that constitutional obligations will be discharged by respondent No. 1 (Speaker) by the next date of hearing,” the Court said.
The matter was adjourned by eight weeks at the request of the Speaker’s senior advocate Dama Seshadri Naidu, and relisted it in the week commencing from November 4.
The petitioner had stated that the disqualification petition against eight rebel Congress MLAs had not proceeded any further despite the High Court of Bombay at Goa in its judgment dated May 2, 2023, had hoped that the Speaker would decide the disqualification petitions in a time-bound manner.
The petitioner had prayed that the Speaker be directed to decide the disqualification petition expeditiously and more particularly in terms of law laid down by the Supreme Court that disqualification petitions be decided within three months, as per the Keisam Meghachandra Singh judgment, which lays down the law that disqualification petitions have to be decided within three months.
According to the petitioner, the Speaker’s delay in deciding the disqualification petition for more than 19 months was unjustified and immediate directions be issued to the Speaker to decide the disqualification petition pending against eight MLAs.
Incidentally, in its earlier order in the matter on May 10 this year, the Supreme Court had exuded hope and trust that the proceedings in all cases will conclude expeditiously. The eight Congress MLAs had defected to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in September 2022.
The Speaker has now fixed the matter for further hearing on another petition filed by Domnic Noronha, on September 20.
In May this year, the Speaker had disposed of the first disqualification petition filed by GPCC president Amit Patkar against the then Leader of the Opposition Michael Lobo and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat, seeking their disqualification as MLAs for voluntarily giving up the party’s membership.