The Supreme Court on Tuesday (June 16) issued notice to the Goa Assembly Speaker on a plea by state Congress president Girish Chodankar for a direction to him decide upon the disqualification of 10 party MLAs who joined the BJP.
These legislators had defected to BJP in July 2019 and the plea for disqualification against them was pending since August 2019.
A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices M R Shah and A S Bopanna sought a response from the Speaker on a writ petition filed by Goa Pradesh Congress Committee chief. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the petitioner, sought an early date of hearing in the matter.
The petitioner has relied upon the SC's recent ruling, in a separate case, that had held the Speaker should decide such disqualification plea within a maximum period of three months.
On Tuesday, the court issued an early notice, seeking a reply from Speaker Rajesh Patnekar within a period of three weeks.
Out of 15 Congress MLA, ten have formed a separate group and merged it with BJP, taking the tally of the ruling party in 40-member Assembly to 27. Some of the defectors were rewarded with a ministerial berth in the Pramod Sawant-led government.
(Published 16 June 2020, 12:07 IST)
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