Office of profit: HC sets aside disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 23

In a huge relief to 20 AAP MLAs disqualified for allegedly holding ‘office of profit’ as parliamentary secretaries, the Delhi High Court on Friday quashed the Presidential notification disqualifying them and asked the Election Commission to give them a fresh hearing.

“Opinion of Election Commission of India (given to the President of India) dated January 19, 2018, is vitiated and bad in law for failure to comply with principles of natural justice,” said a Division Bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna, setting aside the EC’s recommendation disqualifying the AAP MLAs.

The High Court had on January 24 refused to stay the Centre’s notification disqualifying them, but had restrained the poll panel from announcing polls to fill the vacancies.

However, on Friday, it quashed the disqualification notification for “violation of principle of natural justice namely failure (of EC) to give oral hearing and opportunity to address arguments on merits of the issue”. Now the matter will be heard by the EC afresh.

The Bench also asked the EC to “re-examine the factual matrix to decide whether the petitioners (AAP MLAs) had incurred disqualification on appointment as parliamentary secretaries, without being influenced by the earlier order or observations on the said aspect in this order.”

“The elected representatives were wrongfully disqualified. The high court has given justice to the people of Delhi. It is their victory. Congratulations to the people of Delhi,” Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal tweeted.

The 20 AAP MLAs whose disqualification has been set aside are: 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.

They were accused of holding ‘offices of profit’ as parliamentary secretaries to ministers in Delhi government in March 2015. In September 2016, the High Court had ruled against their appointment as parliamentary secretaries.

Under Section 15(1)(a) of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991, “a person shall be disqualified for being chosen as, and for being, a member of the legislative assembly if he holds any office of profit” under the government of India, a state or a union territory” other than an office protected by law.

Section 15(2) of the NCT Act, however, protects ministers from disqualification. According to Section 15(3) of the NCT Act, in case of a dispute over disqualification of an MLA, the issue has to be referred to the President, who is bound by the EC’s recommendation in such matters.