PANJIM: Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar, through his counsel, has urged the Supreme Court for an early hearing on the disqualification petition of 10 MLAs for defecting from the Congress to the BJP. He has sought a hearing before September 4, stating that the matter is pending before the Speaker of the Assembly for over a year.
The disqualification petitions filed against the ten MLAs by Chodankar, along with a petition against two MLAs filed by MGP MLA Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar, all who joined BJP, were to be heard before the Apex Court on August 28.
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Advocate Sahil Tagotra, in an application to the Registrar, Supreme Court, on Monday, pointed out that the matter is not listed in any cause list published till September 2 and further, no tentative date of listing is reflected in the cause status.
The petitioner has requested that the matter be listed before September 4. “Since the main issue in the Writ Petition itself concerns inordinate delay by the respondent (Speaker Goa State Legislative Assembly), any additional delay in listing of the matter, despite specific directions of the Court to list the same, will irreversibly prejudice the petitioner’s case,” the application stated.
“More than two weeks have elapsed since the earlier order was passed (granting two weeks time to Speaker to submit an additional affidavit). Pleadings are already completed in the matter. Therefore, in compliance with the directions passed by the Court in its order dated August 11, the Writ Petition ought to have been listed for hearing on or around August 26,” the application added.
“The petition seeks directions to the respondent (Speaker), as the disqualification petition filed before him is pending since more than one year now,” it added further.
At the hearing on August 11, the Speaker, while seeking two weeks time to file an additional affidavit in the disqualification petition had informed the Supreme Court that the information and documents required could not be completed on account of the COVID-19 situation in the State.
Speaker Rajesh Patnekar is currently undergoing treatment at Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC) for cardiac related ailment.
