Goa Speaker's order on plea of disqualification of 10 Congress MLAs on April 20

Goa Assembly Speaker on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that an order on disqualification of 10 Congress MLAs who defected to the BJP would be passed on April 20.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Speaker, agreed before a bench presided over by Chief Justice S A Bobde that the final order would be passed on April 20.

Mehta's submission came after the bench said that the court cannot accept such a long delay in the matter.

At the outset, Mehta said the Speaker has completed the proceedings and reserved the orders in the matter.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar, contended that this was a mockery of the process as this matter has been pending since 2019. The bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, asked Mehta to ensure that the order was pronounced earlier by the Speaker.

Mehta agreed that the order would be passed on April 20. The court put the matter for consideration on April 21.

Chodankar had approached the top court for a direction to the Speaker to decide upon the disqualification of 10 party MLAs who joined the BJP. The plea for their disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection law) has been pending since August 2019.

The top court in June 2020 issued notice to the Speaker and the state government on Chodankar's petition.

Out of 15 Congress MLA, ten have formed a separate group and merged it with BJP, taking the tally of the ruling party in the 40-member Assembly to 27. Some of the defectors were rewarded with a ministerial berth in the Pramod Sawant-led government.