The troubles for Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) are not looking to end for the time. As, in the latest trouble for the AAP, the Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday issued a notice to 27 more Delhi MLAs for allegedly holding offices of profit.
The petition filed in June, and forwarded to the Commission by Rashtrapati Bhawan last month, is seeking the cancellation of membership of 27 AAP MLAs over the office of profit issue.
The MLAs have been asked by Election Commission to file their responses by November 11.
The MLAs include seven legislators against whom the EC is already considering a similar plea for holding the office of Parliamentary Secretary. Twenty-one other MLAs who are already facing disqualification for allegedly holding an office of profit have asked for time to study the documents. The petition to disqualify the AAP MLAs was filed by advocate Prashant Patel, who has termed the legislators’ move a “ploy” to delay the proceedings.
On September 8, the Delhi High Court had set aside the appointment of these 21 party MLAs as Parliamentary Secretaries. The court had said the order to appoint them was given without the concurrence of Delhi’s Lt Governor, Najeeb Jung.
Earlier in June, President Pranab Mukherjee withheld the assent to a Bill passed by the Delhi Government in June 2015 to exempt the post of Parliamentary Secretary from classification as an office-of-profit with retrospective effect.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had passed an order appointing the 21 MLAs, including Alka Lamba, Jarnail Singh, Adarsh Shastri and Rajesh Gupta, as Parliamentary Secretaries on March 13 last year.
