SC to hear disqualification of 2 Goa ministers on July 20

Team Herald

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has listed for admission a petition, seeking disqualification and expulsion of Deputy Chief Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar and PWD Minister Deepak Prabhu Pauskar from the Assembly for defection from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) to the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party in 2019, attracting the anti-defection law.

The petition has been filed against Goa Assembly Speaker Rajesh Patnekar and the two ministers by lone MGP MLA Ramakrishna @ Sudin Madhav Dhavalikar, whose younger brother Deepak Dhavalikar is the party president. Sudin has come to the Apex Court against the Speaker sitting over his representation since May 2019 to disqualify and expel from the House, Ajgaonkar and Pauskar under the anti-defection law. 

Sudin’s writ petition is listed on July 20 (Monday) before a 3-judge Bench of Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V ramasubramanian as case No 12.

The same Bench was also listed to hear another writ petition of Goa Congress President Girish Chodankar on Friday for disqualification of 10 Congress MLAs who defected en masse to the BJP in 2019 under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, but the case has been deferred to August 7. Their defection in July 2019 had reduced the Congress strength in the 40-member Goa Assembly to five.

Chodankar’s petition is also against the Speaker sitting over the petition since August 2019 to disqualify and expel the defectors from the House. Admitting his petition on June 16, the Court had sought response from the Speaker and 10 defector MLAs who have been also made respondents in the petition.

Both the petitions, however, may not succeed since Schedule 10 allows split of the party if two-third of the MLAs switch side. Two of the three MGP MLAs had defected and so are 10 of the 15 MLAs defected meeting the criteria. The Speaker, however, may come under the Court’s scanner over undue delay in disposal of the two disqualification applications.

Sudin Dhavalikar had moved the Supreme Court on June 19 but his petition was registered only on July 10, after he removed eight defects pointed out by the registry, including one regarding the deficit court fee of Rs 610.