The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned a plea filed by Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar seeking a direction to the Goa Speaker to expeditiously decide on the disqualification of its 10 former MLAs who joined the BJP in July 2019, to February.
The bench of Chief Justice S.A. Bobde, Justices A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian heard the petition and informed the counsels that no one could have a vested right in delay.
Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal said the matter was filed in August 2019 and the court passed an order after a year in August 2020 seeking reply in 2 weeks. Referring to last year’s decision in Keisham Meghachandra Singh v. The Hon’ble Speaker Manipur Legislative Assembly & Ors which set a 3-month timeline for the Speaker to decide on disqualifications, Sibal said the Speaker must decide now.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Speaker submitted that the matter would be taken up by the Speaker on merits, to which Sibal replied that the Speaker must decide the matter immediately, not on merits. To this, CJI Bobde noted that no one could have a vested right in delay and proceeded to adjourn the matter to February.
The petition filed against the Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly and 10 MLAs, states that the MLAs had shifted from the Congress to the BJP. Similarly, a disqualification petition was filed against them for defection before the Speaker. However, despite the same having been filed in 2019, the plea is yet to be heard.