Team Herald
PANJIM: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain the special leave petition filed by the former Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar against the Speaker’s order on eight MLAs, who defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in September 2022.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar advised the petitioner to approach the High Court of Bombay at Goa for redressal under Article 226 of Constitution.
Senior counsel Adv Abhishek Manu Singhvi representing the petitioner argued that the reason for approaching the Supreme Court directly was the unjustified and inexplicable delay of more than 700 days by the Goa Assembly Speaker in disposing of Chodankar’s disqualification petition against eight rebel Congress MLAs.
During the earlier term of the Assembly, the Speaker took 622 days in deciding a similar plea following the defection of 10 Congress MLAs.
The delayed decisions on the part of the Speaker render such pleas for disqualification infructuous as the term of assembly expires, the senior lawyer argued.
“You have come against the order of the Speaker under Article 136, how can that be? You have to file a writ (petition in the High Court),” the CJI Khanna said.
“We cannot entertain an Article 136 plea. We will not become the court of first appeal,” the bench said.
Singhvi subsequently withdrew the plea. The bench said it would be open for the Congress party leader to seek an early disposal of the plea in the High Court.
On November 1 this year, Goa Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar had dismissed the disqualification petition filed by the Congress against eight of its MLAs, who defected to BJP.
Dismissing Chodankar’s petition, Speaker Tawadkar had ruled that “Upon the merger of the original political party of the elected member with another political party, the elected member will not face disqualification in either contingency i.e. whether he chooses to go with the merger or disagrees with the same.”
Disqualification on grounds of defection will not apply in case of merger, Tawadkar had ruled.
