HC issues notice to Goa House speaker
The Goa bench of Bombay high court on Friday issued notices to the speaker and the then pro- tem speaker of the state legislative assembly in connection with the disqualification petition filed by the Congress against Goa health minister Vishwajit Rane.
The notices were issued by Justice Mahesh Sonak to speaker Pramod Sawant and pro-tem speaker Siddharth Kuncalienkar, both of whom have to reply by June 7.
The Congress, in a bid to stop Rane from contesting the Valpoi bypoll, had filed the application stating that as per Article 191 of the Constitution the BJP leader stood disqualified for being chosen as or for being a member of the Goa legislative assembly for five years.
The pro-tem speaker is also accused of accepting Rane’s resignation, which the Congress said was in violation of the Constitu- tion as the health minister had already incurred disqualification by abstaining from voting in terms of the whip
“Our argument is very simple we want him to be disqualified for the next five years as his conduct was not in the right spirit of democracy and he should not be allowed to do the same again,” said Ramakant Khalap, Congress leader.
Rane, who was a former Congress MLA, has raised objections to the party’s plea, arguing that as per the Constitution the petition against him should have been first filed before the speaker of the assembly rather than the HC.