PANJIM: Goa Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar on Wednesday adjourned to November 27, the hearing of the disqualification petition filed by Congress president Amit Patkar against MLAs Michael Lobo and Digambar Kamat as the defendants counsel was out of station.
When the matter was taken up for hearing, the Speaker was informed that Adv Parag Rao, who is representing both, Lobo and Kamat was out of station and sought adjournment. It was informed that Adv Rao was in Delhi to attend a matter in the Supreme Court and sought another date to hear the matter.
Accordingly, the Speaker adjourned the hearing at 5 pm on November 27.
In July last year, Patkar filed a disqualification petition against then Leader of the Opposition Michael Lobo and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat for voluntarily giving up membership of the Congress party.
Patkar had also accused both the rebel MLAs of trying to hatch a conspiracy to engineer a split in the opposition party by hobnobbing with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In September 2022, both Lobo and Kamat along with six others switched over to the BJP. The Congress president has also filed another disqualification petition against the eight rebel MLAs.
Of the four disqualification petitions, the Speaker is first hearing two petitions – one filed by Patkar and another by Dominic Noronha against eight rebel Congress MLAs. Noronha’s petition has now been posted for hearing on December 15.
