Team Goemkarponn
PORVORIM: The Goa Legislative Speaker is expected to conclude the eight MLA disqualification case in the next twenty days.
Speaker Tawadkar stated that the case is being heard as per Supreme Court orders, and that a decision will be provided to them in 20 days “based on the arguments, written statements, etc.”
On Thursday and Friday, Tawardkar heard arguments made by the petitioner’s attorney, Domnic Noronha, who is allegedly employed by the Congress, and scheduled a follow-up hearing for Monday.
The Supreme Court had asked Goa Assembly Speaker to fulfill his constitutional obligation, while deciding disqualification pleas against eight rebel Congress MLAs before postponing the matter for further hearing in November.
The Apex Court Bench co comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar was hearing a special leave petition (SLP) seeking directions to Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar to decide former Congress president Girish Chodankarās disqualification petition within a time-frame.
The petitioner had stated that the disqualification petition against eight rebel Congress MLAs had not proceeded any further despite the High Court of Bombay at Goa in its judgment dated May 2, 2023, had hoped that the Speaker would decide the disqualification petitions in a time-bound manner.
The petitioner had prayed that the Speaker be directed to decide the disqualification petition expeditiously and more particularly in terms of law laid down by the Supreme Court that disqualification petitions be decided within three months, as per the Keisam Meghachandra Singh judgment, which lays down the law that disqualification petitions have to be decided within three months.