PANAJI: The Goa Forward Party (GFP) has welcomed the Supreme Court’s suggestion that an independent mechanism should decide on disqualifications of lawmakers rather than the Speaker. In light of the judgement of the Supreme Court that the Manipur Assembly Speaker should decide on a disqualification petition within four weeks, and that three months from the date of filing of such petition should be the outer limit within which they should be decided, the Speaker of the Goa Assembly should take up the disqualification petitions pending with him and decide on them immediately. The petitions filed in May and August of 2019 are still pending and the Speaker should stop acting like a henchman of the BJP and decide on the petition in a non-partisan manner, stated GFP president and MLA Vijai Sardesai.