PANAJI
The Supreme Court on Monday sought the status of pending disqualification petitions from Speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly Ramesh Tawadkar following Congress’ submission that the delay in deciding its application -- against eight Congress MLAs who defected to BJP -- was unjustified.
A bench comprising Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta heard petitioner Girish Chodankar’s plea seeking directions for the Speaker to hear his disqualification petition against these MLAs pending since November 10, 2022.
The petitions were against Michael Lobo, Digambar Kamat, Aleixo Sequeira, Sankalp Amonkar, Delilah Lobo, Kedar Naik, Rodolfo Fernandes, and Rajesh Faldessai.
During the hearing on Monday, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Chodankar, argued that the Goa Speaker’s delay in deciding the petition for a year and a half was unjustified. He requested immediate directions to dispose of the matter in a time-bound manner.
The Speaker, represented by Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, assured the Court that those disqualification petitions filed before Chodankar’s plea would be disposed of only after which Chodankar’s plea would be taken up.
Chodankar informed the media in Goa that the respondent then assured it would be done before the next hearing in the SC to which the Bench noted the apparent delay and orally instructed the Speaker to decide pending petitions promptly.
The next hearing is slated three weeks from now for an update from the Speaker on the status of the pending disqualification petitions.
Chodankar initially filed his petition before the Speaker on November 11, 2022, and due to delay, sought intervention from the Bombay High Court in Goa. Despite the High Court’s directives for an expedited hearing, the Speaker allegedly failed to take action after which Chodankar filed a Special Leave Petition with the SC on September 17, 2023, seeking timely disposal of the long pending matter.
