Social activist Aires Rodrigues on Monday filed a petition in the Bombay High Court at Goa seeking directions to the Goa government to comply with the mandate of Article 174 of the Constitution by either summoning a session or dissolving the Goa Legislative Assembly.
The matter was mentioned before a Division Bench comprising Justices F.M. Reis and Nutan Sardessai, who agreed to hear the petition on Tuesday.
In the petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution, Mr. Rodrigues has stated that there has been no proposal by the government to convene a session of the Legislative Assembly as required under the Constitution.
Mr. Rodrigues has said in his petition that a Government which defies the Constitution or does not follow the constitutional mandate cannot continue in office even for a moment and requires to be dismissed.
The petition said that according to Article 174 of the Constitution, it was the duty of the Governor to summon the House and that six months should not intervene between its previous sitting and the next. Mr. Rodrigues has said that since the last sitting of the State Assembly was on August 31, 2016, the Governor was duty-bound to summon the House on or before March 3.
He has further said that the Supreme Court has held that Article 174 was mandatory, unless the Assembly is dissolved or kept under suspended animation in exercise of power under Article 356.
He has pleaded that if the Chief Minister refuses to recommend convening of the Assembly session, the Governor has powers to dissolve the Assembly under Article 174(2) (b) of the Constitution.
