MUMBAI, FEB 10: Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Datta Nalawade has asked Shiv Sena member Chandrakant Shankar Padwal to remain present before him for a hearing on the petitions filed by him (Padwal) seeking disqualification of certain independent legislators who had allegedly defected to the Congress.Significantly, Padwal has also been asked to bring with him all the relevant documents for the inspection of the Speaker and the respondent independent legislators on February 18.With this the infamous membership receipts case that shook the Assembly late last year has taken an interesting turn as the Speaker himself has directed Padwal to present himself with the documents and receipts for inspection. It may be recalled that Padwal had not reacted to a plea by the independent legislators to be shown the `damning' receipts.On December 1, Padwal had filed seven separate petitions against Madan Pisal, Rajvardhan Kadambande, Deorao Radke, Rajendra Shingane, Ajit Ghorpade, Mohan Gudadhe and K CPadvi seeking their disqualification from the membership of the State Legislative Assembly.The contention of Padwal was that since they have joined the Congress, they should be disqualified as per the provisions of the anti-defection law as well as the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on the ground of defection) Rules.Padwal pointed out that under these rules, if an Independent of the Legislative Assembly joins any political party or group, he stands disqualified under the anti-defection law.To prove his contention, Padwal had attached alleged membership receipts issued by the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee and also a letter signed by MPCC General Secretary Gurunath Kulkarni.Kulkarni and MPCC President Prataprao Bhosale in turn filed separate affidavits before Nalawade claiming that the so-called membership receipts were forged and the petitions be dismissed. In his affidavit, Bhosale pointed out that the seven independent legislators never joined the Congress.Kulkarnisubmitted that no cognisance be taken of the documents submitted by Padwal as they were forged for ``obvious political reasons''. Simultaneously, he also informed Padwal his intention to initiate criminal proceedings against him for submitting forged and fabricated documents allegedly bearing his signature.When the actual hearing of the case began, V R Manohar and Marzaban Patrawala, advocates appearing for the independent legislators, not only denied the contention of Padwal, but insisted that they should be given inspection of documents. They also sought cross examination of Padwal.At one stage of hearing at Nagpur, during the winter session of the State Legislature, when Manohar and Patrawala reiterated their contention, the Speaker asked them to seek inspection of documents from Padwal. Accordingly, the independent legislators wrote to Padwal to accede on an inspection, but there was no response from him.
