PANAJI
The High Court of Bombay at Goa has reserved the order into a petition filed by the former President of Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) Girish Chodankar seeking directions to the Speaker of Goa Assembly to decide disqualification petitions filed against eight rebel Congress MLAs within three months.
The Special Bench concluded the hearing on Friday wherein the petitioner argued that his petition before the Speaker was intentionally delayed despite the Supreme Court’s directions to dispose of such matters within a time-bound manner, being 90 days.
On the other hand, Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar submitted to the Court that he will give preference to the disqualification petition filed by sitting Congress President Amit Patkar only after which Chodankar’s matter will be heard.
At present, the Speaker is hearing four disqualification petitions against the eight Congress MLAs, who changed their loyalty to the BJP last year.
“Whoever has filed the petition first is being heard first and the sequence is being followed. The Speaker is entitled to decide petitions. In any case, the Speaker is holding the hearing in order as the first petition was filed by Patkar followed by Dominic Fernandes and so on,” Advocate General Devidas Pangam stated.
The AG also argued that “there was no need” for the High Court to pass any orders as the Speaker is also a constitutional authority.
