Goa Speaker will hear disqualification petitions on Feb. 27, SC told
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Adjourning case on the understanding that the pleas can be ‘peremptorily’ disposed of, CJI says.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on Wednesday knowledgeable the Supreme Court that the Goa Assembly Speaker is ‘hearing’ disqualification petitions towards 10 former Congress MLAs who ‘merged’ with the BJP in 2019 on February 27.
“The Speaker has fixed the hearing on February 27. The merger is also pending before the Speaker,” Mr. Mehta submitted.
A Bench led by Chief Justice Sharad A. Bobde talked about in its order that the Speaker has listed the disqualification petitions for ‘disposal’ on that date.
However, when Mr. Mehta sought to make clear that the petitions had been saved for ‘hearing’ and never ‘disposal’, the CJI orally noticed that the court docket was adjourning the case for March on the understanding that the Speaker would ‘peremptorily’ get rid of the petitions.
“We need not hold our hands because they [disqualification petitions] have been kept for hearing. We are saying ‘disposal’ [in the order],” Chief Justice Bobde mentioned.
On January 4, the CJI had orally noticed that “nobody can have a vested right to delay” in a plea filed by Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar in regards to the delay of over a yr and half by the Speaker to determine the disqualification petitions.
Senior advocate Vivek Tankha, for Mr. Chodankar, voiced a fear that “after a lot of pushing they have done it… They [legislators] have filed a reply in the Supreme Court but not before the Speaker… On the 27th they will ask for a date”. The Speaker has to behave as a Tribunal whereas deciding the disqualification petitions, Mr. Tankha submitted.
In an earlier listening to, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for the Congress social gathering and Mr. Chodankar, mentioned a yr and a half had handed with out the Speaker taking a name.
The attorneys for the legislators and Mr. Mehta submitted that the Speaker ought to be left to train his discretion and the court docket mustn’t intervene at this stage.
Mr. Chodankar had alleged that the ten MLAs, purportedly claiming to type two-thirds of the Indian National Congress (INC), “decided to merge the said legislature party with the BJP” and addressed a communication to that impact to the Speaker.
The plea mentioned based mostly on the communication, the Speaker was happy to pay attention to the “alleged merger of INC’s legislative party in the Goa Legislative Assembly, and allotted the 10 MLAs seats in the Assembly along with the members of the BJP”.
Mr. Chodankar has contended that the legislators “ex facie incurred disqualification under Article 191(2), read with Para 2 of the Tenth Schedule (defection), and are liable to be disqualified as member of the Legislative Assembly”.
The petition has referred to a current judgment of the Supreme Court which urges Speakers to determine disqualification proceedings inside an inexpensive time, ideally inside three months.
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