Goemkarponn Desk
PORVORIM: Speaker of the Goa Assembly Ramesh Tawadkar has expedited hearings on applications for disqualification in response to recent orders from the Supreme Court.
The disqualification case involving eight renegade Congress MLAs who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in September 2022 has been rescheduled by the Speaker for October 3 and 4.
Dominic John Noronha filed a petition for disqualification, and the Speaker ordered on Friday that the arguments be finished in two days.
The Supreme Court ordered the Goa Assembly Speaker to carry out his constitutional duties in the first week of September of this year. The court also decided on the eight MLAs’ disqualification petitions and continued the case for a subsequent hearing in November.
The Speaker alluded to expediting the three cases that were presented to him by reading aloud the May 2023 orders from the High Court of Bombay in Goa, which asked him to rule on disqualification petitions promptly. Amit Patkar, the president of Congress, and Girish Chodankar, a former president, submitted the other two petitions.
Following the hearing, Noronha stated that because seven respondents had submitted comments, the Speaker had scheduled the subject for final arguments for two days next month.
According to him, Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira has requested an extension to provide his response by Monday. Respondents’ attorneys asked for more time for their arguments, but on October 3 and 4, the Speaker ordered them to finish in two days.
