PANAJI
Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly has told the Bombay High Court at Goa, that being a constitutional authority, the High Court should refrain from passing orders or issuing directions concerning the pending disqualification petitions.
In his reply filed before the Court, the Speaker has opposed any relief as sought by petitioner and former State Congress president Girish Chodankar, who has approached the High Court seeking directions to the Speaker to dispose of the disqualification petitions in three months.
“The Speaker has taken a stand that such a direction can never be issued to a Speaker because the Speaker is a constitutional authority and the courts will not take up a case, before the Speaker does or passes any order. Till then the court should restrain itself from interfering inside the proceedings at the stage prior to the speaker taking any decision,” Advocate General Devidas Pangam, who represented the Speaker, before the High Court said.
“So we are saying that as far as directions to dispose of the petition in a certain amount of time is not permissible or should not be given in the facts of this case,” the Advocate General said.
The Advocate General also said that in Chodankar’s petition there was no delay in disposing of the petition, since the Speaker was already seized with several petitions concerning the same set of events.
“The Speaker has said that there are similar petitions which are already filed and in those petitions the Speaker has already issued notices and he is hearing those matters. In this petition, the petitioner has approached the Speaker very late, so you cannot say there is a delay in the petition as far as this petitioner is concerned,” Adv Pangam said.
The Advocate General said that in a previous case filed by Chodankar before the Supreme Court seeking similar directions back in 2019 was decided after the Speaker gave an undertaking to the Supreme Court that he would decide the petition in a time bound manner and without any specific directions from the Court.
“In his own case there were no directions to the Speaker by the Supreme Court to dispose of the petition. It was only the Speaker who made a statement that he will dispose of it at a particular time,” Adv Pangam said.
