AAP, 20 MLAs Disqualified as President Approves EC Recommendation
NEW DELHI : Twenty Delhi MLAs of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were disqualified on Sunday with the President of India approving an Election Commission recommendation against the lawmakers in the office-of-profit case.The 20 MLAs who are facing disqualification include Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot, who is the MLA from Najafgarh.
“…Having considered the matter in the light of the opinion expressed by the Election Commission, I, Ram Nath Kovind, president of India, in exercise of the powers…do here hold that the aforesaid 20 members of the Delhi legislative assembly stand disqualified from being members of the said assembly,” read the notification issued by law ministry, quoting the President.
The disqualification will not endanger the Arvind Kejriwal government but its numbers will come down significantly in the 70-seat Delhi Assembly. They would still enjoy a comfortable majority, with 46 out of 50 seats in the pruned House.
The President’s assent also paves the way for by-election in the 20 seats, giving a chance to the BJP and the Congress to increase their tally. While the BJP has four seats in the Delhi Assembly, the Congress has zero.
Alka Lamba, one of the 20 disqualified AAP MLAs, said the party would appeal against the decision in court. “Unfortunate that the President took the decision in such haste, without giving us chance to speak. We’ve trust on judiciary. Doors of HC & SC is open for us,” she said.
The 20 MLAs 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), 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).
In its opinion sent to President Kovind, the EC had said that the MLAs, by occupying the post of parliamentary secretaries between March 13, 2015, and September 8, 2016, had held offices of profit and were liable to be disqualified as legislators.
“Whether or not the individual parliamentary secretaries had actually derived the benefits or participated in executive functions of the government is of no relevance” as the Supreme Court in the Jaya Bachchan case had laid down that if the post falls under office of profit, the disqualification is imminent, the EC had said.
The petition before the ECI was filed by one Prashant Patel against 21 MLAs who were appointed as parliamentary secretaries by the AAP government in Delhi.
The twenty MLAs had held a meeting with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.Sisodia had said after the meet, “The MLAs were not given an opportunity to present evidence with them. It is unconstitutional and illegal.” He had added, “We will go to the people’s court which is the biggest court.”
The AAP had also launched an attack on CEC AK Joti and had said that he was “repaying the debt” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi before his retirement on Monday, January 22, 2018.
“AK Joti was the principal secretary under (the then Gujarat CM) Narendra Modi and then the chief secretary of Gujarat. He is retiring on Monday. So you want to repay Modi ji’s debt. AAP’s Delhi unit spokesman Saurabh Bharadwaj had alleged.
On the other hand, Kejriwal had tweeted saying that in the end truth always wins. Meanwhile, on January 19, 2018, the Delhi High Court had refused to pass any interim order of protection to AAP MLAs. During the hearing, the court had 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.
AAP Delhi convener Gopal Rai said the 20 MLAs had requested to meet the President to discuss the issue before his decision was announced on Sunday. However, they could not get an appointment as the President was “not available.”
“We had requested a meeting for Sunday morning, but were denied, and now [Sunday afternoon] we get this news. We will approach the court and will hope for justice,” Mr. Rai said. (With Agency Inputs ).
