Delhi HC Restores Membership Of 20 AAP MLAs Disqualified By Election Commission

In a massive relief to the Kejriwal-led AAP government, the Delhi High Court today restored membership of 20 MLAs of the party disqualified in January by the President on the recommendation of the Election Commission (EC).

After the court order, the EC will now re-hear the office of profit case. High Court said violation of oral hearing norms by EC and failure to communicate that OP Rawat after recusing had rejoined proceedings were the reasons to quash the January 19 order, reported The Economic Times.

MLAs were not given a chance to put their point, so now the court has given them a chance to do that. The EC will hear their plea again: Saurabh Bhardwaj, AAP on relief to AAP MLAs. #Delhi pic.twitter.com/WO7W12llyX

— ANI (@ANI) March 23, 2018

Background

The Election Commision had recommended disqualification of 20-AAP MLA’s for allegedly holding “offices of profit’. The MLAs were allegedly appointed as parliamentary secretaries to assist various ministries of the state.

The controversy started after AAP’s victory during the Assembly elections in 2015. The EC had said the MLAs, by occupying the post of parliamentary secretaries between March 13, 2015 and September 8, 2016, held office of profit, and were liable to be disqualified as legislators.

AAP has a massive majority in the 70-member Delhi assembly with 65 seats.

Some of the MLAs disqualified were Praveen Kumar, Sharad Kumar, Adarsh Shastri, Madan Lal, Charan Goel, Sarita Singh, Naresh Yadav, Jarnail Singh and Rajesh Gupta.

Also Read:

Setback For AAP: EC Recommends Disqualification Of 20 AAP MLAs For Holding ‘Office Of Profit’

Disqualified AAP MLAs Don’t Have Right To Oral Hearings, Says Election Commission