Team Herald
PANJIM: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the Goa Assembly Speaker and the 10 rebel Congress MLAs, while hearing a special leave petition filed by former Congress president Girish Chodankar.
In the special leave petition, Chodankar has challenged the order and judgment dated February 24, 2022 delivered by the division bench of the High Court of Bombay at Goa dismissing his writ petition, seeking disqualification of 10 former party MLAs, who had switched their sides to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in July 2019.
Chodankar has also challenged the order dated April 20, 2021 passed by the Goa Assembly Speaker, seeking disqualification of 10 erstwhile MLAs forming part of the Congress Legislature Party of the 7th Goa Assembly elections on the ground of defection under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
Former Union Minister and senior advocate P Chidambaram, senior advocate Vivek Tankha along with Adv Ujjawal Anand Sharma argued on behalf of Chodankar. They submitted that the present matter under consideration before the Supreme Court was of great importance even though a new Legislative Assembly is now in place following general elections.
They brought to the notice of the Court the issue concerning the interpretation of Para 4 of Schedule X of the Constitution of India which has not been settled owing to multiple conflicting judgments passed by various High Courts.
