Goa Congress chief moves SC challenging HC judgment over disqualification of 10 Cong MLAs who joined BJP

Panaji (Goa) [India], March 9 (ANI): President of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee, Girish Chodankar, has approached the Supreme Court challenging the judgment of the Bombay High Court at Goa bench dismissing petitions seeking disqualification of 10 Congress MLAs who later joined the BJP.
He has approached the Supreme Court after the High Court on February 24, 2022 upheld the order of the Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly dismissing the disqualification petition filed against 10 members of Congress who had crossed the floor over to Bharatiya Janata Party in the Goa Legislative Assembly.
The High Court order had come in two separate petitions seeking disqualification of 12 MLAs who left their respective parties and joined the ruling BJP. Congress’s Chodankar had filed a disqualification petition against 10 party MLAs who had switched over to the BJP in July 2019 and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MLA Sudin Dhavalikar had also filed a similar petition before the court against two party’s MLAs who had joined the BJP in the same year by splitting the regional party.
The decision of the Speaker upheld by the High Court of Bombay at Goa was in teeth of the settled principles of the merger of a political party, the plea in the apex court stated.
“There are three questions of immense importance before the Supreme Court, which are whether the merger of the original political party is a necessary pre-condition for the members of a legislature party to claim merger of their legislature party? Whether the protection granted under Para 4(1) of Schedule X can be granted to members of the legislature party in the absence of the merger of the original political party? and whether the legislature party can initiate and conclude the merger of the political party without any reference to and/or role of the political party?” the Goa Congress chief said in his plea.
“The interpretation given by the High Court to the para 4 of the tenth schedule is against the basic spirit of ‘democracy’, which is a basic feature of our Constitution. If the interpretation given by the High Court is allowed to continue it will have serious consequences in respect of the democratic and electorate process in the country and this could lead to situation wherein political parties would be able to have MLAs in the house without even contesting elections.”
The Congress leader hoped that the Supreme Court will interpret the tenth schedule in consonance with the spirit and objective of enactment of the tenth schedule.
The appeal in the apex court stated that High Court has committed a “grave error” in upholding the Speaker’s order on the mistaken premise that since the 10 MLAs constituted two-third of their legislature party and had decided to merge with another party, they would enjoy the protection granted under Para 4 of the Tenth Schedule by invoking the “deeming fiction” contained in para 4(2).
Para 4 of the Tenth Schedule deals with disqualification on grounds of defection not to apply in case of a merger.
In the 2017 elections to the 40-member Goa Assembly, the Congress had emerged as the single largest party by winning 17 seats, however, BJP, which won 13 seats forged an alliance with some regional outfits and independents to form the government. (ANI)