PANAJI
Former Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Girish Chodankar on Monday filed a petition before the High Court of Bombay at Goa challenging Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar's order dismissing his petition seeking disqualification of eight turncoat MLAs.
The Division Bench has scheduled the writ petition for hearing on January 15.
Besides seeking to set aside the Speaker’s order, Chodankar has urged the Court that pending hearing and final disposal of the matter, it should restrain the 8 MLAs from participating in the proceedings of the Goa Legislative Assembly and even from being appointed as ministers in the government.
The Supreme Court had in December 2024 refused to entertain Chodankar's plea and the Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar asked the Congress leader to move the High Court to challenge the Speaker's decision dated November 1.
Tawadkar had observed that upon the merger of the original political party of the elected member with another political party, the elected member will not face disqualification in either contingency.
