The Delhi High Court set aside the recommendations of the Election Commission of India (EC) to disqualify 20 AAP MLAs for allegedly holding offices of profit. Holding the notification disqualifying the MLAs as bad in law, the court remanded their plea back to the EC, which will hear it afresh.
The court further said that there was a violation of natural justice and no oral hearing was given to AAP MLAs before disqualifying them as legislators, reported PTI.
Opinion of Election Commission of India (given to the President of India) dated 19 January 2018 is vitiated and bad in law for failure to comply with principles of natural justice.Delhi HC
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal hailed the court’s decision as a “victory of truth”.
It is victory of truth. The representatives chosen by the people of Delhi were sacked wrongly. The Delhi High Court has given justice to the people of Delhi. It is a big victory for the people of Delhi. I congratulate them.Arvind Kejriwal
Soon after the court order, the Delhi Assembly speaker, Ram Niwas Goel, allowed the 20 MLAs in question to attend the budget Session currently underway.
Nitin Tyagi and Alka Lamba were among the first to enter the House, and were soon joined by the other MLAs of the party, PTI reported.
There’s No Setback For Me: Petitioner in the Case
Speaking to the media, Prashant Patel, petitioner in the disqualification case, said:
The court has said that this case will be reopened. I had just raised a constitutional issue, there is no setback for me.Prashant Patel, petitioner
In the meantime, AAP leaders welcomed the court’s decision. AAP MLA and spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said that the court has given the MLAs a chance to put their point across, which they were denied earlier.
On the other hand, Subhash Kashyap, a constitutional expert, told ANI:
The Delhi HC has not revoked the order of 20 AAP MLAs’ disqualification. Rather, it has told the EC to hear the MLAs, since they claimed that they were not heard. The EC can approach the Supreme Court and appeal.Subhash Kashyap, constitutional expert, to ANI
We Will Fight it Out in the EC Again: Cong Leader Ajay Maken
Reacting to the HC’s decision, the Congress said it would fight the office-of-profit case in the EC again.
Ajay Maken, the Delhi unit president of the Congress, said:
A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar had kept its decision pending since 28 February, when it had reserved the judgment after the legislators, Election Commission of India (EC) and other parties had concluded their arguments, reported PTI.
During the arguments, the MLAs had told the court that the 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, it was further reported.
The MLAs had been accused of holding offices of profit, as they were appointed parliamentary secretaries to ministers in the Delhi government in March 2015. In September 2016, the Delhi High Court had ruled against their appointment as parliamentary secretaries.
On 24 January, the high court had 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 bypolls to fill the vacancies.
The EC had on 19 January 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 EC’s opinion was accepted by the President the next day.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI)
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