New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain a plea challenging the decision of the Goa assembly speaker to reject the disqualification petition of the Congress against eight of its MLAs, who defected to the ruling BJP.
The matter came up before a bench led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar. The bench was hearing a plea filed by Congress leader Girish Chodankar. The bench asked the Congress leader to approach the Goa bench of the Bombay High Court to challenge the speaker's decision.
The Goa assembly speaker Ramesh Tawadkar dismissed the disqualification petition filed by the Congress against eight of its MLAs who defected to BJP. The disqualification petition was filed by former Goa Congress chief Chodankar against MLAs Digambar Kamat, Aleixo Sequeira, Sankalp Amonkar, Michael Lobo, Delilah Lobo, Kedar Naik, Rudolf Fernandes and Rajesh Faldesai.
The speaker had ruled that "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 said that disqualification on grounds of defection will not apply in case of merger.
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