The Delhi Court will today hear an appeal filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs who were disqualified for holding office of profit.
The Delhi Court will today hear an appeal filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs who were disqualified for holding office of profit.
Eight of the 20 AAP MLAs had moved the Delhi High Court on January 23 seeking to quash the order disqualifying them for their appointment as Parliamentary Secretary.
The Delhi High Court on January 24 refused to pass any interim order on staying the Centre's notification disqualifying 20 AAP MLAs but restrained the Election Commission (EC) from taking any "precipitate measures" like announcing dates for by-polls till January 29.
Justice Vibhu Bakhru sought the response of the poll panel and the Centre on the AAP legislators' pleas challenging their disqualification for holding office of profit.
The high court summoned the entire records pertaining to the proceedings leading to the recommendation of the EC for 20 MLAs' disqualification which received the President's assent on January 20.
The court had said it would hear it on a day-to-day basis from January 29 onwards.
On January 19, the poll panel had made the recommendation for the disqualification of the 20 legislators, which was given assent by the President.
The EC had made the recommendation while deciding a plea by advocate Prashant Patel, seeking disqualification of 21 AAP MLAs for holding the office of parliamentary secretaries, which he had said amounted to office of profit. Proceedings against Jarnail Singh were dropped after he resigned as the Rajouri Garden MLA to contest the Punjab Assembly polls.
On January 20, the Ministry of Law and Justice issued a notification that the President had held that the 20 MLAs stand disqualified under Section 15(1)(a) of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act.
The MLAs, whose appointment to the post of Parliamentary Secretaries between March 13, 2015 and September 8, 2016 was held as office of profit, contended that the entire episode leading to their disqualification was a clear manifestation of the process in which they were denied the principle of natural justice of being heard.
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).
The others are 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).
(With PTI inputs)
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 "Disqualified AAP MLAs outside Delhi High Court on Wednesday")
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