EC has disqualified 20 APP law makers in ‘Office Of Profit’ Case
NEW DELHI : The Election Commission has recommended that 20 Aam Aadmi Party MLAs embroiled in the office of profit case be disqualified. In 2015, the Arvind Kejriwal government had passed an order appointing 21 MLAs as Parliamentary Secretaries to seven ministries.
The Aam Aadmi Party, led by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has 65-members in the 70-seat Delhi Assembly. The disqualification of 20 MLAs doesn’t jeopardise the government as it will still have 45 members, well over the halfway mark in the house.
On 13th March 2015, the AAP government passed an order appointing 21 MLAs as Parliamentary Secretaries. This was challenged by Advocate Prashant Patel who petitioned President Pranab Mukherjee that these MLAs should be disqualified.
The Delhi Legislative Assembly, then passed the Delhi Member of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) ( Amendment Bill), 2015 excluding Parliamentary Secretaries from “ office of profit’ with retrospective effect. However, the President withheld assent to the amendment bill and referred the matter to the Election Commission.
The issue in front of the Election Commission is whether the office of Parliamentary Secretary in the GNCTD,1991 constitutes an ‘ office of profit’. Article 191 in the Indian Constitution has not defined the term ‘office of profit’, therefore paving the way for courts to lay down the law.
Meanwhile, The High Court on Friday refused to pass any interim order of protection to AAP MLAs, whose names have been recommended for disqualification as legislators by the ECI) holding office of profit.
Justice Rekha Palli, however, asked the ECI to inform it on January 22 whether the recommendation has been communicated to President Ram Nath Kovind, as the MLAs have sought that they be heard by the poll panel if no such communication has been made.
The order was passed late in the evening as the poll panel’s lawyer, Amit Sharma, said he was not aware whether the recommendation has been sent to the President. On being asked by the court to check with the ECI, he said he was unable to get in touch with them in this later hour.
During the hearing, the court made it clear that it was not inclined to pass any interim order in view of the conduct of the MLAs in the proceedings before the poll panel. It was displeased by the MLAs’ conduct of telling the poll panel not to go ahead with the matter as the issue has been challenged in the high court.
“Your conduct is such that you do not care to go before the ECI. The high court did not prevent you from going before the ECI,” the judge said and added, “you have used the pendency of your pleas in the high court as a shield”.
Hours after the ECI recommended their disqualification, the affected MLAs mentioned the application before a bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal for urgent hearing, which was listed before Justice Palli. The hearing on the matter began around 5.30 PM.
Earlier in the day, the ECI had recommended to the President the disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs for allegedly holding offices of profit. In its opinion sent to the President, the ECI said by being parliamentary secretaries, they held office of profit and were liable to be disqualified as MLAs of the Delhi Assembly.
The 20 MLAs set to be disqualified include, Adarsh Shastri (Dwarka), Alka Lamba (Chandni Chowk), Anil Bajpai (Gandhi Nagar), Avtar Singh (Kalkaji), Kailash Gahlot (Najafgarh) — who is also a minister — Madan Lal (Kasturba Nagar), Manoj Kumar (Kondli), Naresh Yadav (Mehrauli), Nitin Tyagi (Laxmi Nagar), Praveen Kumar (Jangpura).
Others are: Rajesh Gupta (Wazirpur), Rajesh Rishi Janakpuri), Sanjeev Jha (Burari), Sarita Singh (Rohtas Nagar), Som Dutt (Sadar Bazar), Sharad Kumar (Narela), Shiv Charan Goel (Moti Nagar), Sukhbir Singh (Mundka), Vijendar Garg (Rajinder Nagar) and Jarnail Singh (Tilak Nagar).
An angry AAP claimed the Election Commission has never “touched this low”, after the poll panel recommended disqualification of party’s 20 MLAs for allegedly holding office of profit. “The EC should not be the letter box of the PMO. But that is the reality today,” Ashutosh tweeted
Backing AAP in its moment of crisis, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted, “A Constitutional body cannot be used for political vendetta. The 20 AAP MLAs were not even given a hearing by the Hon EC. Most unfortunate. At this hour we are strongly with @arvindkejriwal and his team.”
(With Agency Inputs ).
