Goemkarponn Desk
PANAJI: Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) Presidnet Girish Chodankar today said that his party has challenged the High Court upholding Speaker’s order in disqualification matter against 10 MLA’s in Supreme Court.
“We have challenged the High Court upholding Speaker’s order in disqualification matter against 10 MLA’s in Supreme Court with the plea that merger of political party should be pre-condition for the two-third MLAs to shift their side,” said Chodankar
He further said that the interpretation given by the HHigh Court to the para 4 of tenth schedule is against the basic spirit of ‘democracy’ , which is basic feature of our Constitution.
“If the interpretation given the High Court is allowed to continue it will have serious consequences in respect of the democratic and electorate process in the country and this could lead to situation wherein political parties would be able to have MLA’s in the house without even contesting elections,” he said
Girish hoped that theSupreme Court will interpret the tenth schedule in consonance with the spirit and objective of enactment of tenth schedule.”
“Curiously, the Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly was pleased to hold that the “deemed” merger of the INC had taken place with BJP and, thereby, afforded protection to the defecting members of the House,” he added
Chodankar said that the decision of the Speaker was upheld by the High Court of Bombay at Goa, in teeth of the settled principles of merger of a political party under Schedule X passed by the Full Bench of the very same High Court in Shah Faruq Shabir & Ors. v. Govindrao Ramu Vasave & Ors., 2016 SCC OnLine Bom 5451.