Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat came under fire on his very first day in office on Tuesday, 23 January, with the AAP terming as "false" his claim that the Delhi MLAs, disqualified on charge of holding office-of-profit, did not seek hearings on the issue.
AAP leader Raghav Chadha said that contrary to CEC Rawat's assertion in a newspaper interview that the AAP did not request the EC to hold hearings though it was served notices on 28 September and 2 November last year, the party did "respond twice".
The CEC is lying. We wrote, ‘yes, we want to place our side’, both in written and oral. The EC didn’t respond. How can you not give us a hearing? Every judicial and quasi-judicial body has to function as per law but what happened with us is unprecedented, where the cardinal principles of natural justice were condemned.Raghav Chadha
In his defence, Rawat said that the "notice was comprehensive. But the AAP did not respond in the context of the notice."
"Since the matter is subjudice, let us not talk about it further," Rawat told PTI.
Chadha also dubbed as "illegal" Rawat's decision to involve himself in AAP-related cases after having recused himself in April 2017 when he was the election commissioner. The AAP was in "complete dark" about this, he said.
Rawat recusing himself was seen as “an admission of guilt” on his part pertaining to the allegations that he was close to the BJP, Chadha said. “His role is under a cloud of suspicion,” he said.
The AAP's Rajya Sabha-elect Sanjay Singh alleged that the Commission's "unilateral action" was in violation of all norms and wondered if the President could not have shown the "minimum constitutional propriety" by meeting the MLAs before acting on the EC advice.
"MLAs of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Bengal, Assam and Mizoram have not been disqualified despite their appointments being quashed by the high court.
The EC is showing no enthusiasm in the case relating to Chhattisgarh legislators as the BJP government may fall. Are its actions guided by the prime minister?Sanjay Singh, at a press conference
Chadha also questioned the role of Election Commissioner Sunil Arora in the matter, claiming he was never involved in the case related to the AAP MLAs.
We never even saw him and now he is one of the signatories to the document recommending the disqualification of the MLAs.Raghav Chadha
20 AAP MLAs were disqualified last week on charge of holding office of profit. President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent on January 20 to the recommendation in this regard by the Election Commission.
These MLAs were appointed as parliamentary secretaries by the AAP dispensation in Delhi to assist ministers in 2015.
CEC Defends Decision on AAP MLAs
The CEC has defended the poll panel’s decision to recommend the disqualification of the 20 AAP MLAs of Delhi for holding office of profit, saying had it not been done, the matter would have remained "open" for re-hearing.
Asked whether there is a 'trust deficit' with regard to EC after the decision to delay Gujarat polls and the recent disqualification of AAP lawmakers, he said he does not "subscribe to that view. I feel that in our working, this kind of expression of adverse opinion is not indicative of trust deficit".
He told PTI that the AAP MLAs were issued two notices by the EC but their response was not in the context of the notice served on them.
He said three commissioners - Nasim Zaidi, AK Joti and he himself - had heard the case.
"The commission works either on unanimity or majority. When Zaidi retired, there was only one commissioner. The commission felt that this won't be decided unless the second commissioner is on board so they requested me and I came on board," he said.
Rawat too had defended the CEC’s decision in light of AAP’s allegations. To a question on whether the EC should have heard the matter at all as the AAP had already moved the court, Rawat had said, "unless there was a stay, EC had no restriction in hearing the AAP matter."
Politics is the art of possible and they work on those lines. Whereas, EC has to get 360 degree information on every issue and decide every issue objectively. So we are doing whatever is befitting to us, they are doing whatever is befitting to them.OP Rawat
Asked whether it was unfair on part of Kejriwal to question his neutrality he said, he would pass a "value judgement."
"It is a learning process, you keep on learning nuances of different environment" Every event makes you wiser," he said.
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