PANJIM: The Supreme Court of India on Friday issued notices to Goa Assembly Speaker and eight Congress MLAs, who had defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in September last year.
The Apex Court issued notices in the petition filed by former State Congress president Girish Chodankar on account of the failure of the Speaker to decide the disqualification petition filed against eight defectors.
The petitioner has pointed out that the disqualification petition has not proceeded any further despite High Court in its judgment dated May 2, 2023, having recorded that the Speaker will decide the disqualification petition expeditiously and follow the Keisam Meghachandra Singh judgment, which lays down the law that disqualification petitions have to be decided within three months.
In May this year, the High Court had disposed Chodankar’s petition stating that it hope that the Speaker would decide the disqualification petitions in time-bound manner.
The petition came up before the Bench comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and justice S V N Bhatti, who issued notices to respondents and asked them to file their reply. Senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for the petitioner.
The matter has been posted for further hearing in the first week of December.
