President Kovind rejects plea to disqualify 11 AAP legislators

NEW DELHI : President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected a plea to disqualify 11 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAS on the grounds of holding offices of profit.

Delhi chief minister and AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal welcomed the move, saying “truth always prevails”.

The order issued on October 28 was in response to a 2017 plea filed by BJP leader Vivek Garg who demanded disqualification of the MLAS for holding the posts of co-chairpersons of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) while being members of the legislative assembly.

The 11 MLAS against whom the petition was filed are Kailash Gahlot, who is also the state transport and environment minister, Sanjeev Jha, Nitin Tyagi, Praveen Kumar, Pawan Kumar Sharma, Dutt Sharma, Rajesh Gupta, Sarita Singh, Dinesh Mohania, Amanatullah Khan and Jarnail Singh (Tilak Nagar).

Reacting to the order, Kejriwal tweeted, “Satyamev Jayate! Ultimately, truth prevails.”

After Garg filed his petition in March, 2017, the Delhi government had responded to the Election Commission, saying the co-chairpersons of DDMA were not entitled to any remuneration by way of salary, allowances, sitting fee or any other facility such as office space or cars.

In October, 2018, Kovind had rejected another petition to disqualify 27 AAP MLAS for allegedly holding offices of profit by being appointed as chairpersons of Rogi Kalyan Samitis (RKS) attached to various governmentrun hospitals in Delhi.