the goan I network
PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa on Monday put the onus of proving that the two Congress deserters -- Dayanand Sopte and Subhash Shirodkar -- who defected to the BJP did so against their wishes on the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP).
The MGP which filed a petition seeking directions from the court that the duo be barred from contesting elections for the next six months, has sought time until Friday to produce ‘evidence’ that the duo were coerced into resigning.
The MGP in its petition claimed as ‘evidence’ that “an observation of note on acceptance of the Resignation Letter of Dayanand Raghunath Sopte shows that the handwriting thereof is different from the handwriting on the Resignation Letter of Subhash Ankush Shirodkar” and that “the material on record is not sufficient enough to show that the resignation of the two members was voluntary or genuine.”
The MGP had filed the petition claiming that it as a party
has consistently been the victim of defections, and that the duo -- Sopte and Shirodkar -- had sought to bypass the anti-defection law by resigning.
The petition which seeks that the decision of the Speaker to accept the resignations should be set aside because the Speaker “has not acted independently” also seeks “appropriate directions to the Election Commission of India to send appropriate recommendations to the Government as well as the Law Commission of India seeking amendment to the Anti Defection Law whereby the members of either Parliament or the Legislative Assemblies or Councils who resign from the membership without justifiable reasons should be disqualified from contesting fresh elections and/or occupying any public posts for a period of six years.”
