PANAJI
Speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly Rajesh Patnekar on Friday heard two separate disqualification petitions -- one pertaining to the defection of ex-MGP MLAs and the other of the 10 MLAs who switched allegiance from the Congress to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party -- and reserved his orders in relation to the former.
The hearing in the petition against the 10 ex-Congress MLAs, however, will continue even as the petitioners in both matters -- Sudin Dhavlikar and Congress president Girish Chodankar -- have sought prompt disposal of their petitions.
Both the petitioners, however, told media that the Speaker, who heard arguments from their counsels on Friday, has reserved the petitions for final order.
Chodankar, meanwhile, said it is irrelevant whether his petition succeeds or not but it is crucial that the Speaker disposes it.
"The Speaker has heard us and our opponents. We hope to have an order very soon," Chodankar said.
The hearing conducted by the Speaker, comes days after the Supreme Court of India had directed disposal of the petitions by February 26. But Patnekar a few days ago had filed an application before the Apex Court seeking "clarification" of that order and had also informed the court that disposing the petition in a single day may not be possible.
Current Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant (Babu) Kavlekar had led a group of 10 Congress MLAs to split from their party and 'merge' with the ruling BJP when he was the Leader of Opposition in July 2019.
Chodankar's petition seeks disqualification of the 10 MLAs on grounds that this process of split and merger is illegal under Xth Schedule of the Constitution.
In all, the Congress has shed 13 MLAs to the BJP since 2017.
