PANAJI
The Goa Legislative Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar has posted for hearing the disqualification petitions filed against the eight former Congress legislators who switched sides to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in September last year for April 8.
On Monday, the eight legislators who had sought time to file their detailed replies to the petitions were granted six weeks until April 5.
In a separate order, Tawadkar also granted 15-days time to Digambar Kamat and Michael Lobo, who have another petition filed against them by the Congress State president, Amit Patkar, related to an alleged anti-party activity by the duo prior to their eventual defection in mid-September.
Lobo had been removed as CLP leader and with Kamat was served a show-cause notice by Patkar accusing them of anti-party activity. Patkar had followed it up with filing disqualification petitions against the Kamat-Lobo duo before Tawadkar even before the mid-September switch over by the eight MLAs occured in mid-September.
Apart from Kamat and Lobo, the other six MLAs who switched camps are: Aleixo Sequeira, Delilah Lobo, Kedar Naik, Sankalp Amonkar, Rajesh Phaldesai and Rudolf Fernandes.
Tawadkar meanwhile told the media after the hearings he conducted on Monday that that the pleas against the eight MLAs is adjourned till April 8 and he has granted six weeks time for the MLAs to file their detailed replies.
The earlier petition against Kamat and Lobo, meanwhile will next be heard on March 6, he added.
Interestingly Tawadkar himself has been served notice by the Bombay High Court at Goa, to respond with replies within two weeks to a petition filed by Congressman Girish Chodankar, who has sought a direction to the 'Speaker' for early decision on the disqualification pleas within 90 days.
Chodankar's petition also seeks that the High Court invoke the Manipur precedent set by the Supreme Court of India, wherein members facing disqualification be debarred from holding office as ministers in the case of 'inordinate delay' in hearing the disqualification cases.
