PANAJI
Goa legislative Assembly Speaker, Ramesh Tawadkar on Friday dismissed the disqualification petition against the eight MLAs who had defected from the Congress to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in September 2022.
The petition had been filed by former Congress State president, Girish Chodankar, who said he will seek legal advice to challenge the Speaker's verdict before the courts.
In his judgement, Tawadkar said, the arguments of the petitioner's advocate are "factually and legally incorrect" when he argued that his (Speaker's) order related to the sitting arrangement for the eight respondent MLAs when they claimed to have merged on September 9, 2022.
Speaking to media after passing his judgement, Tawadkar said the two-year delay was justified given the multiple hearings and submissions made by all parties.
"However, I did try to fast track the order," Tawadkar said, adding that the petitioner (Chodankar) is free to challenge it if he is not satisfied.
Meanwhile, Tawadkar disclosed that there is still one more disqualification petition pending against Digambar Kamat, Micheal Lobo, Delilah Lobo, Kedar Naik, Rajesh Faldessai, Rudolf Fernandes, Sankalp Amonkar and Alexio Sequiera for their September 2022 act of joining the BJP.
Meanwhile, Chodankar said, the Speaker’s order will be challenged in the Supreme Court even as he said it will promote defections against the objective of the Xth Schedule.
This order was on the expected lines and it is the carbon copy of the order passed in the matter of the 10 MLAs’ defection in the previous term, Chodankar said.
