Goemkarponn desk
PORVORIM: Goa Legislative Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar today has granted six weeks to eight Congress MLAs who had defected from Congress to join BJP to file their reply in a plea seeking their disqualification.
Speaker has also granted 15 days to MLA Digambar Kamat and Michael Lobo to file replies in yet another disqualification petition filed against the duo by Congress President Amit Patkar.
Both the disqualification petitions filed by Patkar and Dominic Noronha were listed for hearing today.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Tawadkar said that the disqualification petition filed against 8 MLAs is adjourned till April 8, granting six weeks time to the legislators to file their replies.
He also said that the next hearing in the disqualification petition filed against Digambar Kamat and Michael Lobo has now been fixed for hearing on March 6.
The High Court of Bombay at Goa had issued notices to the Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly and eight MLAs who had defected from Congress to BJP in a disqualification plea.
The High Court had asked all the respondents to file a reply in 2 weeks.
Chodankar, in his petition, has pointed to a precedent set by the Supreme Court in the case of Manipur, where the Supreme Court had ruled that given the inordinate delay in hearing the case, the members who faced disqualification petitions could not hold official positions like being ministers.
