Disqualified AAP MLAs get HC relief
BIG BOOST Party cheers as court says EC order bad in law NEW DELHI:
The Delhi high court set aside on Friday the Election Commission’s disqualification of 20 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators in a major victory for the ruling party in Delhi.
“It is a victory of truth,” chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted after the high court overturned the poll panel findings that the MLAs were holding office-of-profit as parliamentary secretaries.
A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar said that the Centre’s notification disqualifying the MLAs was “bad in law” and remanded their plea back to the Election Commission which will hear it afresh.
The court said there was violation of natural justice and no oral hearing was given to the MLAs before disqualifying them.
“Opinion of Election Commission of India (given to the President of India) dated January 19, 2018, is vitiated and bad in law for failure to comply with principles of natural justice,” the court said.
Lawyer and petitioner in the case Prashant Patel said, “The court has said this case will be reopened. I had just raised a constitutional issue, there is no setback for me.”
The case dates back to March 2015 when the Delhi government appointed 21 MLAs as parliamentary secretaries.
The appointments were made to assist cabinet ministers and
Opinion of Election Commission of India dated January 19, 2018, is vitiated and bad in law for failure to comply with principles of natural justice DELHI HC JUDGEMENT
include more MLAs in governance work. A parliamentary secretary assists a minister, and the office usually comes with perks similar to that of a minister.
Patel had complained to then President Pranab Mukherjee, that 21 of the AAP legislators were occupying offices of profit. Mukherjee referred the complaint to the Election Commission.
On January 19 this year, the EC recommended disqualifica- tion of 21 AAP MLAs -- one had by then resigned from the assembly, bringing the number of disqualified MLAs to 20. The President accepted the EC’s opinion the very next day.
Eight of the 20 disqualified MLAs moved the high court on January 23 against the presidential order. The high court, on January 24, refused to stay the Centre’s notification, but restrained the EC from taking any “precipitate measures” such as announcing dates for by polls to fill the vacancies.
AAP had come to power in 2015, winning 67 seats in the 70-member house.
Party MLA from Rajouri Garden, Jarnail Singh, quit his post to contest the Punjab assembly elections but the AAP failed to win the bypoll. After the disqualification of 20 MLAs, the AAP’s strength had come down to 46.