Team Herald
PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa on Friday issued notices to Goa Assembly Speaker and eight former Congress MLAs, who had defected and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in September last year, asking them to file their replies within next two weeks.
The court was hearing a writ petition filed by former Congress president Girish Chodankar seeking direction to the Goa Assembly Speaker to decide the disqualification petition filed by him against eight rebel MLAs within a time-bound manner as laid down by the Supreme Court.
The writ petition came up before Division Bench comprising Justice B P Colabawalla and Justice B P Deshpande after Justice Mahesh Sonak had recused from hearing it on Monday.
Eight of the 11 Congress MLAs had defected and joined the BJP on September 14, 2022.
The petitioner has prayed that the Speaker should decide the disqualification petition filed against eight rebel MLAs within a period prescribed by law and that the delay in disposal of disqualification petition virtually amounted to defeating the very purpose and objectives of Anti-Defection law, as contained in Schedule Tenth of the Constitution. He has stated that the Speaker is enjoined upon to decide upon disqualification petitions within a reasonable period of time, and in any case, within a period of 90 days.
