Goemkarponn desk
PORVORIM: The eight Congress MLAs who jumped ship to the BJP have filed their replies before the Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar, seeking the dismissal of both petitions, arguing that the sitting MLAs did not file them.
MLAs, in their replies, claimed that only sitting MLAs can file disqualification petitions and not those who are not Members of the House.
MLAs also sought the rejection of two petitions because they are not filed by members of the legislative assembly (MLAs), and only MLAs can file disqualification petitions.
The Speaker held a hearing in the disqualification petition filed by Domnic Noronha against 8 MLAs and Amit Patkar against Digambar Kamat & Michael Lobo. Advocate of Domnic Noronha requested time. The next hearing is kept on May 29. The petition of Amit Patkar will be heard on April 26.
During the first hearing, Noronha requested four weeks to file his reply, which was granted by the Speaker, who posted the matter for the next hearing on May 29.
Later, when the Speaker took up Patkar’s petition for a hearing, some of the respondents sought a postponement, stating that their lawyer was out of the station; however, Patkar’s lawyer insisted that a short date be given. Following this, the Speaker postponed the matter to April 26 at 5 pm.
MLAs Digambar Kamat, Michael Lobo, Delilah Lobo, Kedar Naik, Rajesh Phaldesai, Sankalp Amonkar, Rudolf Fernandes and Aleixo Sequeira joined the BJP after passing a resolution in a meeting of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP).
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