PANJIM: The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned to July, hearing of a petition filed by the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) seeking directions to the Goa Legislative Assembly Speaker to decide on the disqualification petition filed against eight Congress rebel MLAs, who switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in September 2022.
Adv Uday Bhatiya representing the petitioner informed the media that the Supreme Court has kept the matter alive merely to check and take an update after two months in July, as to the status of the disqualification petitions filed before the Goa Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar.
Adv Bhatiya said that due to intervention of the Supreme Court, the Goa Assembly Speaker finallyadjudicated the pending disqualification petition filed by GPCC president Amit Patkar against the then Leader of the Opposition Michael Lobo and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat, after almost two years.
Adv Bhatiya further said that the Goa Speaker has now also accelerated another disqualification petition filed by Domnic Noronha against eight MLAs and has fixed it for final arguments.
The Speaker will also hear another two disqualification petitions against the eight MLAs filed by the Congress president and the former party president.
During the last hearing, the Supreme Court case and orally directed the Goa Assembly Speaker to decide pending disqualification petitions against eight Congress rebel MLAs, at the earliest.
The petitioner had stated that the Speaker’s delay in deciding the disqualification petition for more than 17 months was unjustified and immediate directions be issued to the Speaker to decide the disqualification petition pending against eight MLAs.
Accordingly, the Speaker on May 8, disposed of the first disqualification petition filed by Patkar against Lobo and Kamat, seeking their disqualification as MLAs for voluntarily giving up the party’s membership.
