Goa MLA disqualification matter: Congress leader Girish Chodankar to move higher court

Panaji, Nov 2 (PTI) Congress’ Girish Chodankar said on Saturday that he would challenge in a higher court the Goa Speaker’s decision to disallow his disqualification petition against eight of his party MLAs who defected to BJP in 2022.

Chodankar had filed the petition seeking the disqualification of MLAs Digambar Kamat, Aleixo Sequeira, Sankalp Amonkar, Michael Lobo, Delilah Lobo, Kedar Naik, Rudolf Fernandes and Rajesh Faldesai after they left Congress to join the ruling party two years ago.

Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar on Friday dismissed Chodankar’s petition seeking action against the lawmakers on the grounds of defection.

The Congress leader told PTI that getting the order from the Speaker was “merely a formality”. “I had to complete that formality of approaching the Speaker and getting the order (disallowing the petition) from him as it is necessary before I move higher courts,” he said.

Chodankar said he would either petition the Goa Bench of Bombay High Court in Panaji or the Supreme Court. “I have both options and I am taking legal opinion on that,” he said.

The Congress leader said he had to approach the Supreme Court seeking its intervention after the Speaker did not give his verdict on his disqualification petition for almost two years.

“The Supreme Court had asked the Speaker to decide on the petition as soon as possible. The apex court had fixed the next date on November 4,” he said.

Chodankar said the Speaker wrongly interpreted the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which concerns disqualification on the grounds of defection, and validated the “illegal merger of the Indian National Congress in the BJP by the eight MLAs”.

The case before the higher court will set the precedent that even though the defecting MLAs have a three-fourth majority (of the seats won by a party), they cannot shift sides without the consent of the parent political party.

The eight MLAs joined the BJP on September 14, 2022, taking the ruling party's strength in Goa's 40-member assembly to 28.

Dismissing Chodankar’s disqualification petition, speaker Tawadkar ruled on Friday that a member of the assembly shall not be disqualified where his original political party merges with another political party.

“In simple words, upon the merger of the original political party of the elected member with another political party, the elected member will not face disqualification in either contingency i.e whether he chooses to go with the merger or disagrees with the same,” the speaker ruled.

The speaker said disqualification on the grounds of defection does not apply in the case of a merger. PTI RPS NR