Assembly polls challenged
Sandesh Prabhudesai
5 April 2002
The chief election commission has begun
preparations for fresh Assembly elections, while the opposition
Congress here has approached the court to stall the process
of notifying poll process.
The high court here is already seized with
four petitions challenging the premature Assembly dissolution
on the eve of budget session as well as drawing money from
the contingency fund without the budget. The Congress alone
has filed three of these petitions.
The fifth petition, to be taken up for
hearing on Monday, primarily prays to restrain the CEC from
notifying the Assembly elections. The CEC, on the other
hand, has indicated that the tenth Assembly has to sit by
17 July, which means the notification has to be issued by
May.
Petitioner Shantaram Naik, former PCC president
and ex-MP, feels that no elections can be notified when
the court is deciding on vital constitutional issues like
premature dissolution of the Assembly and utilising contingency
fund without presenting the budget, while financial year
has already ended.
CEC B B Tandon, during his two-day Goa
visit, however clarified that no situation can stall the
process of notifying elections, unless the court issues
a clear-cut directive to stay it. "Pending hearing of the
petition, we can definitely go ahead with the process",
he says.
Goa is presently witnessing a fierce constitutional
battle since last week with top legal luminaries debating
over the action of Governor Mohammed Fazal dissolving the
House within 32 months under Article 174 (2) b, as per the
advise of the BJP government, which still continues in power.
His another action of issuing ordinance
to increase the limit of contingency fund from Rs 10 crore
to Rs 690 crore as well as allowing deposits of all the
public revenue directly in the contingency fund has also
become matter of debate here.
Justifying the action, additional solicitor
general of India R N Trivedi, former additional solicitor
general Manohar Usgaonkar and state advocate general Atmaram
Nadkarni have crossed swords with topmost lawyers like K
K Venugopal, T R Andhyarujina, G L Sanghi, Surendra Desai
and even Goa's former AG Vijay Nadkarni.
