PANAJI
Even as the Bombay High Court on Thursday dismissed the pleas against Goa Speaker Rajesh Patnekar's ruling upholding the merger of 12 MLAs -- 10 from the Congress and two from the MGP -- into the ruling BJP in 2019, the judgement evoked reactions on expected partisan lines from the State's politicians.
While the two petitioners -- State Congress president Girish Chodankar and MGP's Sudin Dhavalikar -- rued their unsuccessful bid to get the 12 legislators disqualified, those on the other side of the political divide including Chief Minister Pramod Sawant welcomed Thursday's High Court judgement.
On Thursday, a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court at Goa dismissed petitions challenging Goa Speaker Rajesh Patnekar's order rejecting disqualification of 12 legislators who switched over to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in July 2019.
In his reaction, Chodankar said his party will consider challenging the judgement in the Supreme Court as it sets a "bad precedent" and defeats the purpose of the Constitution's Xth Schedule.
Dhavalikar on the other hand said paucity of funds was preventing him from approaching the Apex Court but added that he would instead petition the President of India and seek redressal for suitable provisions to debar MLAs switching parties from contesting elections for six years.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant meanwhile hailed the High Court judgement saying it ensured that democracy and the constitutional mandate prevailed over the smear campaign of the Opposition.
"I welcome the decision of the High Court in dismissing the appeal filed by Congress and MGP against merger of 12 MLAs into the BJP Legislature Party. Democracy and constitutional mandate has prevailed over the smear campaign,” Sawant said in a tweet.
Chodankar said the High Court judgement will set a bad precedent not just in Goa but the whole country and encourage elected representatives to go against the mandate of the people for pecuniary considerations.
"Spirit of the Xth schedule is to prevent horse-trading. We definitely need to challenge it in the Supreme Court. We will seek a clear mandate from the Supreme Court as to whether the intent of Xth schedule is to encourage such type of defection to overturn mandate of the people or to set it right,” Chodankar said.
