Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar on Friday dismissed the disqualification petition filed by former Congress president against eight rebel party MLAs who defected to the Bharatiya
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Janata Party (BJP).
The Speaker dismissed the petition after two years stating that the arguments of the petitioner were factually and legally incorrect when he says that the Speaker had decided about the merger in the order dated September 14, 2022.
On October 14, the Speaker had dismissed the disqualification petition filed by Dominic Noronha of Dramapur-Sirlim against eight Congress rebel MLAs Digambar Kamat, Michael Lobo, Aleixo Sequeira, Delilah Lobo, Kedar Naik, Rajesh Faldessai, Rudolf Fernandes and Sankalp Amonkar.
The petitioner had argued that all eight MLAs had voluntarily given up the membership of their original political party and had incurred disqualification under Para 2 of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
The respondents claimed that their merger with the BJP was valid as they constitute two-third of the Members of Congress Legislature Party (CLP). They argued that there was no need of an actual and factual merger of the original political parties i.e. Congress and BJP. They stated that as per Para 4 of the Tenth Schedule, there was a deemed merger and prayed that the petition be rejected.
After announcing his verdict, Tawadkar justified the delay in view of the multiple hearings and submissions by both, the petitioner and respondents. “However, I did try to fast-track the hearings. If the petitioner is not happy with the order, he is free to challenge it.”
He however refused to comment on the order, nor reply to a question whether there was a merger.
Tawadkar also informed that one more disqualification petition filed by Congress president Amit Patkar against eight MLAs was pending. “I have not fixed dates for arguments,” he said.
On the other hand, the petitioner and his lawyer Adv Abhijit Gosavi stated that they will examine and challenge the Speaker’s order in Supreme Court. The Speaker has interpreted the Anti-Defection Act to promote defections rather than prevent defection which is the aim of the Tenth Schedule of Constitution. The Tenth Schedule was enacted to give importance to political parties because elected Members were taking decisions as per their whims and fancies.
“We will explore our possibilities. But the endeavour will be to approach Supreme Court to ensure that a proper law is laid down in respect of defections,” Adv Gosavi said.
The petitioner criticised the order stating that it will promote defections even though the objective of the Tenth Schedule was to stop defections. How the Speaker can adjudicate the matter which is arisen due to his wrong decision to accept their merger and allot the eight MLAs lotus symbol? he asked.
This order was on the expected lines and it is the carbon copy of the order given by previous Speaker in the matter of 10 Congress MLAs’ defection in July 2019, he said.
