New Delhi: In a major relief to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Delhi high court, on Friday, set aside the disqualification of its 20 MLAs in the office-of-profit case and directed the Election Commission (EC) to hear the matter afresh.
A two judge bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar quashed the Centre’s notification disqualifying the AAP MLAs, saying the EC’s recommendation against the legislators was “bad in law” and “vitiated.”
Remanding the MLAs’ plea back to the EC, the bench said that there was violation of natural justice as no opportunity for oral hearing was given to the MLAs before disqualifying them as legislators of the Delhi Assembly.
After the court order, Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel allowed the 20 AAP MLAs to attend the ongoing Budget Session. AAP MLAs Nitin Tyagi and Alka Lamba were among the first to enter the House.
An elated chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said it is the victory of truth.
AAP said the EC’s decision to disqualify 20 of its MLAs was a serious attempt to dislodge an elected government and demanded that the election commissioners either “resign” or “apologise” for it.
AAP’s Delhi unit chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj targeted the former election commissioner AK Jyoti and alleged that his decision to disqualify the AAP MLAs was to “please the Centre,” whereas party leader Ashutosh alleged that the EC’s decision was an attempt to hijack the mandate of the people.
Meanwhile, Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken said his party will fight it out in the EC again as the 20 MLAs have enjoyed perks. He said that the court has just asked the EC to look at the matter again in light of natural justice.
The court order in favour of AAP created history as this was the first time in two decades that an EC decision, to disqualify a legislator, has been struck down. The order has come at a time when the EC’s autonomy and fairness has been questioned over a series of decisions, including its move last year to let Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh vote separately.
The court order has made it clear that no by-elections will be held in these 20 seats till a final decision is taken on the contentious political issue. The court order is also being viewed in the political circles as a major victory for AAP.
The court asked the EC to “re-examine the factual matrix to decide whether the petitioners (AAP MLAs) had incurred disqualification on appointment as parliamentary secretaries, without being influenced by the earlier order or observations on the said aspect in this order.”
The MLAs, who were appointed parliamentary secretaries, had challenged their disqualification for holding office-of-profit. During the arguments, the MLAs had requested the court to remand their case back to the poll panel with a direction to hear the matter afresh. They had approached the high court challenging their disqualification after President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the EC’s recommendation.
