Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa Assembly Speaker Rajesh Patnekar on Tuesday dismissed the disqualification petitions filed by the Congress and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) against 12 rebel MLAs for joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019.
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The Speaker pronounced his oral orders separately to both petitioners – MGP MLA Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar and Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Girish Chodankar – even as both petitioners submitted applications seeking certified copies of the judgements.
Also, some of the respondents submitted applications to the Speaker seeking copies of the judgement. The judgement copies will be given to both – petitioners and respondents – within a day or two.
Both petitioners told media persons that they will decide their future plan of action after reading the judgement.
After emerging from the Speaker’s office, Dhavalikar’s lawyer Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira said the Speaker dismissed their disqualification petition filed against two former party MLAs and gave no reasons for dismissal. He said the Speaker told them that the copies of the order would be given to them after making some corrections.
However, the petitioner immediately made an application to the Speaker asking for certified copies of the order.
According to Ferreira, the hearing before the Supreme Court fixed on Thursday, April 22 would now be infructuous following the Speaker dismissing their plea. However, he added that they will decide their future plan of action only after reading the judgement.
Dhavalikar said he had lot of expectations from the Speaker but that just the one line said that the petition has been dismissed. He said only after reading the Speaker’s verdict he will decide whether to approach the High Court of Bombay at Goa or the Supreme Court to get the two defectors disqualified.
Chodankar’s lawyer Adv Abhijit Gosavi too said their disqualification petition against 10 rebel MLAs had been dismissed by the Speaker. But he said that the biggest hurdle was to get a decision from the Speaker.
“As of now we have not got copies of the order. Once we get the copy we will know what is the reason for dismissal,” Gosavi said, adding that they will test this decision and were pretty sure that they will succeed in it.
Gosavi said based on the outcome of the proceedings before the Supreme Court on April 22 they will decide where to go next. “Certainly we will test this decision because this decision is not in consonance with the Constitution,” he added.
