Withdrawal of Petition
The 20 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) disqualified by the Electoral Commission (EC) on Friday moved to court on Monday to withdraw their petition to move the Delhi High Court, seeking to stay the EC’s recommendations that President Ram Nath Kovind disqualifies the 20 AAP MLAs. They were found guilty of holding “office-of-profit” as Delhi Parliamentary Secretaries. The withdrawal came as a result of the President’s Ram Nath Kovind decision to follow the recommendations by the EC and disqualified the MLAs. The AAP MLAs’ Counsel explained that the President’s decision made the previous petition infructuous hence their move to withdraw the appeal.
After withdrawing, the 20 MLAs moved Delhi High Court to nullify their disqualification decision by President. The determination carried out by the EC was approved by the President on Sunday and was carried out in conjunction with Section 15 (1) (a) of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) Act 1991.
History of the Case
In February 2015 AAP won 67 out of 70 set in Delhi the goes ahead to pass an order to appoint 21 MLAs as Parliamentary Secretaries in March. On June 19th, 2015 Advocate Prashant Patel challenges the appointments. A year later, the EC conducted an eight-day hearing for 21 AAP MLAs facing disqualification. On June 24th, 2017 the EC rejected a plea by the 21 MLAs to drop the case. The EC followed up with recommendations for the President to disqualify the 20 MLAs.
Efforts and Outcome
The Delhi Chief Minister, Arvin Kejriwal on Sunday accused the BJP of frustrating government operations. He asserted that his offices were also raided to try and implicate him for holding office-of-profit. BJP did not manage, but the other 21 MLAs were implicated. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia wrote an open letter on Tuesday 23rd to the public sought support for the disqualification decision. If the 20 MLAs do not get a reprieve, Delhi is like to prepare for 20 by-elections.
List of Disqualified MLAs
The 20 MLAs disqualified are; Sanjeev Jha, Rajesh Gupta, Kailash Gahlot, Vijendra Garg, Praveen Kumar, Sharad Kumar, Madan Lal Khufiya, Shiv Charan Goyal, Sarita Singh, Naresh Yadav,
