AAP approaches Delhi High court against Election Commission disqualifying its 20 MLAs

The Aam Aadmi Party MLAs have approached the Delhi court on Friday against the decision of the Election Commission that has recommended the names of 20 MLAs of party for disqualification, on account of holding the office of profit. The recommendation has been sent to the President, who if clears the same, would result in the reduction in the total strength of the party i.e. from 62 to 42 members directly. The AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj told the Times of India that, & quot We have learned from media reports that the EC has recommended the disqualification of 20 MLAs to the President. It will be against the principles of natural justice because the MLAs were not given any chance to put forth their views before the EC,& quot The matter began in March 2015 when the Aam Aadmi Party government had passed an order appointing 21 MLAs as parliamentary secretaries. This was challenged by Advocate Prashant Patel who had filed an application with the President, questioning their appointment. Further, on the basis of this application, the Congress had in 2016 filed a petition in the Election Commission seeking the disqualification of these 21 AAP MLAs. The number, however, came down to 20 after MLA Jarnail Singh resigned to contest against Parkash Singh Badal in the Punjab Assembly Election. The issue before the Election Commission was whether the position of parliamentary secretary constitutes & lsquo office of profit' or not as Article 191 of the Constitution of India, which talks about office of profit does not define the term. Further, in June 2015, after the appointment of these 20 MLAs, the AAP government by the way of an ordinance, amended the Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) Act, 1997, to exempt the post of parliamentary secretary from the definition of & lsquo office of profit' with retrospective effect. AAP had argued that this post did not qualify as an office of profit as there is no monetary benefit attached to it. The party's efforts, however, got a jolt when President Pranab Mukherjee declined approval to the proposed Amendment in June 2016 and further referred the matter to be heard by the Election Commission. Further, the Delhi High court in September 2016, set aside the appointments made by the party on the ground that the order of appointment was passed without concurrence/approval of Lt. Governor. The MLAs then in June 2017 approached the EC requesting it to drop the “ office of profit” case against them. However, the Commission rejected the plea and held that the disqualification proceedings against them will continue.