In a significant political development, President Pranab Mukherjee has refused to give assent to The Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualific-ation) (Amendment) Bill 2015 that would have empowered the AAP government to allow its 21 legislators to function as parliamentary secretaries.
These 21 AAP MLAs now face the prospect of disqualification. All the parliamentary secretaries appointed by the Kejriwal government in March last year are under the scanner of the Election Commission as their appointment has been challenged on the ground that the MLAs cannot hold any office of profit under the prevailing laws.
A highly-placed source said the President refused to give his consent to bill, passed by the Delhi Assembly last year, after holding due consultations with the law ministry as the same had been introduced in the Delhi Assembly without seeking prior mandatory legal and constitutional sanction of the Union government.
The AAP government had wanted to amend the 1997 bill to give “retrospective” exemption to the 21 parliamentary secretaries from disqualification provisions. The bill had suggested the office of the parliamentary secretary to the chief minister and ministers of the government of NCT of Delhi should not be disqualified and should be deemed never to have been disqualified for being chosen as or for being a member of the Legislative Assembly of the NCT of Delhi. The bill was forwarded by lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung to the Centre, which in turn sent it to the President with its comments. Mr Jung had earlier indicated that the 21 AAP legislators were bound to be disqualified.
The AAP government last year had appointed 21 parliamentary secretaries for the six-member council of ministers. At the time, the then principal secretary (general administration department) Anindo Majumdar had said in his order: “The parliamentary secretaries will not be eligible for any remuneration or perks of any kind from the government. However, they may use government transport for official purposes only and office space in the ministers’ office would be provided to them to facilitate their work.”
After the President’s decision, the AAP on Monday held an emergency meeting to deliberate on possible situation if 21 of its MLAs appointed as parliamentary secretary lose membership of the Assembly on the ground of holding office of profit as a city government brought bill to give them immunity was rejected by the President.
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal reacted sharply to the development and targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that he does not respect democracy and was only fearful of the AAP.
Mr Kejriwal took to the twitter to express his anger. He said no MLA was given a single paisa, car or bungalow in their capacity as Parliamentary Secretary and said they were giving services for free. “Modiji says all of you sit at home. Should not work,” he said, adding MLAs were tasked to look after power supply, water supply, functioning of hospitals and schools.
“Modiji says neither will work nor will allow to work,” Mr Kejriwal said.
The government can appoint only one parliamentary secretary to the chief minister.
Earlier, two legislators other than the parliamentary secretary, who could hold office of profit were chairpersons of the Delhi Khadi and Village Industries Board and the DCW. Later, the scope of the Act among other posts was extended to the office of the chairmen and vice-chairmen of the Trans-Yamuna Area Develop-ment Board, the Delhi Rural Development Board, District Development Committees, the SC/ST Welfare Board, the Fire Prevention Advisory Committee, Hospital Advisory Committee, governing body of a Delhi government sponsored college, cooperative institution or organisation registered under the Delhi Cooperative Societies Act, 2003 and any statutory or non-statutory body set up by the city government.
Who faces action Sharad Kumar Sanjeev Jha Sukhvir Singh Rajesh Gupta Som Dutt Alka Lamba Shiv Charan Goel Jarnail Singh (Tilak Nagar) Jarnail Singh (Rajouri) Rajesh Rishi Adarsh Shastri Kailash Gahlot Vijender Garg Praveen Kumar Madan Lal Naresh Yadav Avtar Singh Manoj Kumar Nitin Tyagi Anil Kumar Bajpai Sarita Singh
