Team Herald
NEW DELHI: The twin cases of 12 MLAs of Goa defecting to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party are now slated to come up before the Supreme Court on Monday against Speaker Rajesh Patnekar for not taking any decision on applications for their disqualification under the anti-defection law.
One petition is by Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar against 10 former Congress MLAs, many of whom are now ministers in the BJP government, while the second petition tagged with it is by Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) MLA against two party MLAs defecting and becoming ministers. They are: Deputy Chief Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar and PWD Minister Deepak Prabhu Pauskar.
Both petitions tagged together were last heard on August 11 when the Court allowed adjournment on the Speaker’s plea to file some documents. They were earlier scheduled on September 9 but then shifted to September 14.
Another case of Goa’s interest listed on Wednesday before the Bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud, Indu Malhotra and K M Joseph is a writ petition by Vedanta Limited for lifting the ban by the Apex Court on mining in Goa since March 2018. Much interest will be on the Goa government’s review petition ordered to be listed before Dr Chandrachud’s court for reversing the Apex Court’s judgment in February 2018 shutting down all iron ore mines in the State.
Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde disclosed on September 4 that the review petition has been sent to Justice Chandrachud for consideration. It is, however, not clear whether the review petition will be tagged with the writs of Vedanta and Geetabala Parulekar or heard separately. The clarity will come on Wednesday when the hearing takes place on the two writ petitions.
