The Election Commission may soon give an order on the disqualification plea of 21 AAP MLAs filed by advocate Prashant Patel. In the last hearing that happened on 27th March, the EC reserved the order after all hearings which is now awaited. The AAP MLAs have argued that their disqualification be dropped as HC had already set aside their office of profit in an earlier case last year. Quoting this news report :
The Election Commission may soon give its ruling on whether the disqualification plea against 21 AAP MLAs in Delhi has become infructuous after the Delhi High Court quashed their appointment as parliamentary secretaries last year.
The ruling should set the stage for a final pronouncement on whether the appointments violated the office of profit law and if they are to be disqualified — a decision that will precipitate a mini assembly election in Delhi.
“The commission has finished hearing the arguments of both sides on the limited question of whether the disqualification case against the 21 AAP MLAs stands in the wake of Delhi HC order. The order has been reserved. The EC will examine the submissions and give its ruling in due course,” an EC functionary told.
Advocate Prashant Patel however said that these AAP MLAs enjoyed the benefits of office of profit for which they were appointed unlawfully. Prashant had filed this petition to the President in 2015. We asked him to tell us the details of this case and here is what he says :
“On 26th December,2015 i submitted my reply to Election Commission and a copy to honorable President that Delhi Government did not observe and follow the mandatory legal and constitutional requirements before introducing and passing this Bill in the Legislative Assembly, hence the impugned Bill cannot and must not be given the shape of a valid law. So the president must kindly withhold his assent to this Bill. I submitted that after the submission of my Petition earlier in June 2015 seeking disqualification of MLAs holding Office of Profit, Delhi Government brought a bill in Assembly.
Funnily, the appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries was made on 13 March 2015, and the Bill with malafide and malicious intent , was passed on 24 June 2015 and it was given retrospective effect by stating that “It shall be deemed to have come into force on the 14th day of February 2015″
These AAP MLAs should be disqualified as according to constitution, there is no legal remedy available to them, since Appointment 21 MLAs as ‘Parliamentary Secretaries’ was worst form of political corruption.”
Now the order from EC is awaited, it is hoped that justice will prevail and corruption will be discouraged.
(Featured Image Credit : ABP News)
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Since the last & final hearing happened on 27th March 2017, 22 days have passed…..and EC is still not pronouncing his final orders….!!! Why??? What stops EC from giving his final orders???