The fluid political situation in Goa took a new turn on Wednesday as the Supreme Court said it would hear the petition of two disqualified Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) MLAs challenging the decision of the Goa assembly speaker on Monday.

When the matter was mentioned by Senior Counsel Mukul Rohtagi, a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said it would hear the detailed arguments on Monday before issuing any notice to the Goa government or the state speaker.

Pandurang alias Deepak Dhavalikar and Sudin Dhavalikar of the MGP in separate petitions challenged the legality of the last minute ex-parte ad-interim order passed by Speaker Pratapsingh Rane restraining them from voting in the confidence motion moved by Chief  Minister Digambar Kamat.

“This notwithstanding that no opportunity of hearing was given to the petitioners,” said the petition seeking court’s direction to declare the speaker’s decision on July 30 unconstitutional.

Brushing aside protests from the opposition-led by BJP, the Speaker disqualified 3 legislators from participating in the proceedings of the house including the confidence vote. Victoria Fernandes had sought to resign from the Congress last week; whereas Sudin and Deepak Dhavalikar (brothers) had withdrawn support to the coalition government.

On July 25, MGP’s sole representative in the ministry had resigned and the party had informed the speaker that it would be supporting the Opposition.  The disqualification led to a tie between the 2 coalitions, having 18 MLAs each,  in their favour in the 40-member assembly. The casting vote of the Speaker tilted the scales in favour of Kamat government.