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Court issues notice on Goa MLAs’ plea
Legal Correspondent
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice on the three petitions filed by two disqualified Goa MLAs, Pandurang alias Deepak Dhavalikar and Sudin Dhavalikar, of the Mahasthtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and the Goa Democratic Alliance (GDA) seeking a direction for a fresh floor test in the Assembly to decide the majority of Chief Minister Digambar Kamat.
Order challenged
The two MLAs also challenged Speaker Pratap Sinh Rane’s order that disallowed them to vote in the floor test of July 30, and sought an interim stay of its operation.
A three-Judge Bench, comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices Tarun Chatterjee and R.V. Raveendran, asked the respondents—the Speaker, the State Government and the Chief Minister—to file their response by Friday. It directed listing of the matter for further hearing on August 13.
Senior counsel, Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the petitioners, said: “the proceedings in the Goa Assembly was a complete roughshod on the Constitution at every stage.”
‘Illegal’
The Speaker’s interim order to freeze the voting rights of the two MLAs, without giving them the opportunity on the disqualification petitions filed against them, was totally illegal, he alleged.
Senior advocates Soli Sorabjee and Arun Jaitley also appeared for the petitioners.
Mr. Sorabjee said: “I have seen many Speakers but here is a case where there was total breach of natural justice.”
Mr. Jaitley said all 20 MLAs of the GDA were before this court. Senior counsel Harish Salve, K.K. Venugopal and K. Parasaran, represented the respondents.
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