Delhi HC sets aside Aam Aadmi Party MLAs’ disqualification, Arvind Kejriwal says ‘victory of the truth’
Mar 23, 2018 | 15:05 IST |
Times Now Digital

File image   | Photo Credit: BCCL
New Delhi: In a massive relief for the ruling Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi, the Delhi High Court on Friday set aside the disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs in connection with the office of profit case. The 20 AAP MLAs had been disqualified by way of a presidential notification following a recommendation by the Election Commission to disqualify the lawmakers in the office of profit case. Following relief to the 20 AAP MLAs by the Delhi High Court, the Election Commission would now hear the office of profit case afresh as the court remanded the legislators’ plea back to the poll panel.
While setting aside the disqualification, the high court held the notification disqualifying the AAP MLAs as bad in law and said there was violation of natural justice. It added that no oral hearing was given to the AAP MLAs before disqualifying them as legislators.
Reacting to the verdict, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, “It’s a victory of the truth. The representatives elected by the people of Delhi had been wrongly disqualified. Delhi High Court has given justice to the people of Delhi. It’s a big victory for the people of Delhi. Congratulations to the people of Delhi.”
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The high court order came on a plea by the 20 AAP MLAs challenging their disqualification for holding office of profit when they were appointed parliamentary secretaries. A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar had kept its decision pending since February 28, when it had reserved the judgement after the legislators, Election Commission and other parties had concluded their arguments.
During the arguments, the MLAs had told the court that EC's order disqualifying them for allegedly holding office of profit was passed in "complete violation of natural justice" as they were not given an opportunity to explain their stand before the poll panel.
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The bench was also requested by the legislators to remand their case back to the poll panel with a direction to hear the matter afresh. They had approached the high court challenging their disqualification after President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the EC's recommendation.
Backing its recommendation to the President for AAP MLAs' disqualification, the poll panel had submitted that the legislators cannot claim that they were not holding office of profit. It had also claimed that these MLAs' pleas were not maintainable and were liable to be dismissed.
The MLAs are accused of holding offices of profit, as they were appointed parliamentary secretaries to ministers in the Delhi government in March 2015. This was soon after they were elected to the Delhi Assembly. In September 2016, the Delhi High Court had ruled against their appointment as parliamentary secretaries, after hearing their pleas on a daily basis since February 7.
The high court had on January 24 refused to stay the Centre's notification disqualifying them, but had restrained the poll panel from taking any "precipitate measures" such as announcing dates for by polls to fill the vacancies.
The EC had on January 19 recommended the disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs - Alka Lamba, Adarsh Shastri, Sanjeev Jha, Rajesh Gupta, Kailash Gahlot, Vijendra Garg, Praveen Kumar, Sharad Kumar, Madan Lal, Shiv Charan Goyal, Sarita Singh, Naresh Yadav, Rajesh Rishi, Anil Kumar, Som Dutt, Avtar Singh, Sukhvir Singh Dala, Manoj Kumar, Nitin Tyagi and Jarnail Singh. The president had accepted the EC's opinion the next day.