Office of profit: Prez dismisses plea to disqualify 27 AAP MLAS

NEW DELHI: In a relief to Aam Admi Party (AAP), President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected a petition to disqualify 27 of its Delhi MLAS for allegedly holding office of profit by being appointed as chairpersons of Rogi Kalyan Samitis attached to various city government hospitals.

The President signed the order on October 15 dismissing the plea based on an opinion given by the Election Commission (EC) on July 10.

The EC had found no merit in the plea, moved on June 21, 2016 by Vibhor Anand, which had claimed that the 27 AAP MLAS were in a position to “interfere” in a day-to-day administration of these hospitals and hence held office of profit. The petition had also claimed that in May, 2015 the Delhi health minister had issued directions to all government hospitals to provide office space to chairperson of the committee, which also attracted provision of the office of profit law.

NEW DELHI: In a major boost to the AAP, President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday dismissed a petition seeking disqualification of 27 party MLAS on charges of holding Office of Profit as Chairpersons of Rogi Kalyan Samitis (RKS) in Delhi government hospitals, prompting the ruling party in Delhi to claim victory.

Soon after the President dubbed the petition filed by a Vibhor Anand in 2016 as not maintainable, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) hit out at the Election Commission, wondering whether it was truly independent or not.

In his order, the President said that "the question of alleged disqualification of Alka Lamba and 26 other Members of Delhi Legislative Assembly is not maintainable".

The order came four months after the Election Commission ruled that the office of chairperson in RKS in hospitals fell under the exempted category of the Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) Act, 1997, and so the MLAS could not be disqualified.

The AAP, which has been at loggerheads with the Modi government over several issues, claimed victory but said it was clear that the party's name was allowed to be sullied although the allegation at the first place was not based on facts. "Most unfortunately, the Election Commission not only decided to entertain such a trash as a petition but also decided to initiate the proceedings on the basis of rubbish which in normal circumstances would have been consigned to the dustbin," the AAP said in a statement.

Minister Gopal Rai accused the poll panel of wasting two long years over the petition without any solid evidence against the MLAS. "Everyone knows that the MLAS involved in the RKS had nothing to do with Office of Profit... The Election Commission wasted two years because of some pressure from somewhere. At last, the truth is out," he said.

The MLAS against whom the petition was filed were Alka Lamba, Shiv Charan Goel, Jagdeep Singh, Bandana Kumari, Ajesh Yadav, S.K. Bagga, Jitendra Singh Tomar, Rajesh Rishi, Rajesh Gupta, Ram Niwas Goel, Vishesh Ravi, Jarnail Singh, Naresh Yadav, Nitin Tyagi, Ved Prakash, Somnath Bharti, Pankaj Pushkar, Rajendra Pal Gautam, Kailash Gahlot, Hazarilal Chouhan, Sharad Kumar Chauhan, Madan Lal, Rakhi Birla, Mohammad Ishraque, Anil Kumar Bajpai, Surender Singh and Mohinder Goyal.

The AAP said the "fake complaint" against its MLAS should have been dumped by previous President Pranab Mukherjee and not forwarded to the Election Commission. "Unfortunately, this did not happen and a bogus complaint was allowed to be publicised to create a doubt in the minds of the people and this 'tamasha' was allowed to linger on for two years." The EC is also hearing another plea to disqualify 20 AAP MLAS for allegedly holding Office of Profit as Parliamentary Secretaries. In January, the poll panel had recommended the disqualification of the 20 AAP MLAS and the President accepted the poll panel's opinion the next day.