On Wednesday, landing AAP MLA’s in trouble once again, the election commission has issued a show cause notice to 27 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA’s seeking disqualification from holdings of office to profit.
The notice has been issued in response to the new petition filled, seeking the cancelation of membership of 27 legislators of delhi assembly over the office of profit issue. The petition filed in June, and forwarded to the Commission by Rashtrapati Bhawan last month. Further on, the MLA’s have been asked to file their response by November 11th
The commission also said that it would commence final arguments from November 15. The petitioner has claimed that these MLAs hold posts of chairpersons of Rogi Kalyan Samitis (RKSs) of different government hospitals in Delhi without any sanctity of law.
The list also includes Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, his deputy Rakhi Birla, former deputy speaker Bandana Kumari and estranged AAP MLA and Swaraj Abhiyan leader Pankaj Pushkar.
On September 8, the high court set aside the appointment of 21 party MLAs as parliamentary secretaries. The court had said the order to appoint them as parliamentary secretaries was given without the concurrence of the Lt Governor.
AAP says since the decision to appoint the 21 MLAs as parliamentary secretaries has been set aside, they could not be disqualified for holding the office which they no longer enjoy.
But the petitioner says the court order will have no bearing on the case being heard by EC.