AAP appeal to President Kovind to listen to us too:
NEW DELHI : Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was not given an opportunity by the Election Commission to explain its stand in the office of profit case.
Sisodia said, “There was no hearing, we were not given a chance to explain our stand.”He appealed to President Ram Nath Kovind to hear the AAP’s views. “We appeal to the President to hear our view too, and (the) MLAs will meet (the) President also.”
Earlier, the AAP said that the Election Commission (EC) has not followed due process while recommending the disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs from the Delhi Assembly in the office of profit case Senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh termed the EC’s recommendations as ‘one-sided’ and ‘partial’.
Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday described the Election Commission’s recommendation to disqualify 20 AAP lawmakers “unconstitutional” and decided to ask President Ram Nath Kovind to hear them out before signing the formal orders.
The Election Commission had asked President to disqualify the 20 lawmakers for violating office of profit provisions.”We are seeking time to meet the President. The legislators will meet him and present evidence to support their case,” Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced after the 20 legislators set to lose their seat met his boss, Arvind Kejriwal.
Should Rashtrapati Bhavan oblige the Aam Aadmi Party with an appointment, it is going to be a meeting high on optics, not substance, and would underline AAP’s determination to fight the recommendation at all levels. Rashtrapati Bhavan does not have a discretion and the law requires the President to act on the commission’s advice.
Mr Sisodia said the Election Commission’s recommendation was “unconstitutional and undemocratic” because the legislators were not given an opportunity to defend the charge that they had violated the office of profit provisions. This is also against the principles of natural justice, he said.
Lawmakers, under the office of profit provisions, cannot hold any post in the government that entitles them to perks or powers unless a law has been passed to exempt the posts. If someone complains and the Election Commission finds that a particular office held by a legislator qualifies to be an office of profit, the lawmakers stand to lose their seats.
In 2015, someone did complain when Chief Minister Kejriwal appointed 21 lawmakers as parliamentary secretaries after the AAP swept the elections with a crushing majority, capturing 67 of the 70 seats.
Later when the AAP government attempted to duck the office of profit provisions by enacting a law to exempt these posts, the BJP-ruled central government spiked the bill.
The AAP government reasons that this rejection was blatantly unfair and inspired by politics, not the Constitution, because many other states including Delhi had in the past made such exemptions.( With Agency Inputs ).
