SC declines to stay Pratapsinh Rane's order

New Delhi, Sep 14 (UNI) The Supreme Court today declined to stay the operation of the order of Goa Assembly speaker Pratapsinh Rane, dated August 30, 2007, restraining two Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party(MGP) MLAs from participating in voting in the Assembly.

A bench comprising Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and Justice RV Raveendran however issued notices to the Congress MLA Agnel Fernandes on whose complaint the disqualification order was passed by the Assembly speaker against petitioners Rama Krishna alias Sudin Dhavalikar and Pandurang alias Deepak Dhavalikar, both MLAs .

Earlier, senior counsel Mukul Rohatagi, appearing for the petitioner, contended before the court that the impugned order passed by the Assembly Speaker ammounted to overreaching the apex court, which has already reserved its judgement on the issue.

The court fixed September 24 for hearing of the petition.

The petitioner have also contended that only the political party or its agent to which the petitioners belonged can seek disqualification of the MLAs and nobody else has any locus standi to file any complaint against the petitioner.

The whole controversy started when the Speaker disqualified the petitioner before the trial of strength took place on the floor of the House in July this year. State Chief Minister Digambar Kamat was directed by the state Governor to seek fresh vote of confidence on the floor of the Assembly on July 30 after the two petitioners withdrew their support to the Congress government in the state.

Mr Manohar Parikar, the leader of opposition in the Assembly, staked the claim to form new government alleging that the Kamat government has been reduced to a minority.

According to the petitioner, the impugned order which is tainted with malafide, perversity, unconstitutionality and emanated from collusion between the respondents including the state Chief Minister and the Assembly speaker, may be set aside.

UNI