PANJIM: The Goa assembly Speaker heard the second disqualification petition filed by former Congress president Girish Chodankar in 2022 on Monday, after a gap of two years, following Supreme Court directions.
All eight Congress MLAs who changed over from the Congress to the BJP, have been asked to file their replies by October 18, 2024. The arguments will take place on October 24 and 25.
Goa Assembly Speaker dismissed the first disqualification petition filed by Dominic Noronha against eight rebel Congress MLAs.
MLAs Digambar Kamat, Aleixo Sequeira, Sankalp Amonkar, Michael Lobo, Delilah Lobo, Kedar Naik, Rudolf Fernandes and Rajesh Faldesai, joined the BJP on 14 September 2022.
Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar said, “We have dismissed the petition of Dominic Noronha and from today we have taken up the petition filed by Girish Chodankar. “
“The petition I had filed for disqualification of the 8 Congress MLAs stands dismissed. In the oral arguments the grounds that the defendents were relying on is section 4 (2) of the X Schedule. We were saying that if a party has to merge, two-thirds of the party organization has to merge. What they are saying is that two-thirds of the Legislature party can merge. That means their argument has stood.”Dominic Noronha, Petitioner
The petition had come up after two years of its filing. That speaks for itself. “The MLAs have to file their replies by October 18, 2024 and the arguments will take place on October 24 and 25, 2024.”Abhijit Gosavi, Petitioner Girish Chodankar’s counsel