20 disqualified AAP MLAs withdraw plea, will file fresh petition

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Jan 22, 2018 : The 20 MLAs from the Aam Aadmi Party who were disqualified after ECI’s recommendation have withdrawn their plea. The Delhi High Court was set to hear the plea against the disqualification of the 20 MLAs today.

 

The MLAs will be filing a fresh plea in the High Court.

"AAP has complete faith in the judiciary and will challenge this biased, illegal and illogical order of the Modi government in courts of law," party spokesperson Saurab Bharadwaj told PTI on Sunday.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday had given his assent to the Election Commission’s recommendation for the disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs in the Office of Profit case.

Justice Rekha Palli allowed the MLAs to withdraw their plea and termed it ’dismissed as withdrawn’.

On the other hand, Delhi High Court refused to pass any interim order of protection to AAP MLAs recommended for disqualification by EC on January 19, 2018.

The Election Commission sent its opinion to the President saying that by being parliamentary secretaries, they held office of profit and must be disqualified from the Delhi Assembly.

The petition before the EC was filed by Prashant Patel. The proceedings against Jarnail Singh were dropped after he resigned as the Rajouri Garden MLA to contest the Punjab Assembly polls.

The list of MLAs:

1. Adarsh Shastri (Dwarka)
2. Alka Lamba (Chandni Chowk) 3. Anil Bajpai (Gandhi Nagar) 4.Avtar Singh (Kalkaji) 5. Kailash Gahlot (Najafgarh) - who is also a minister - 6. Madan Lal (Kasturba Nagar) 7. Manoj Kumar (Kondli) 8. Naresh Yadav (Mehrauli) 9. Nitin Tyagi (Laxmi Nagar) 10. Praveen Kumar (Jangpura) 11. Rajesh Gupta (Wazirpur) 12. Rajesh Rishi (Janakpuri) 13. Sanjeev Jha (Burari) 14. Sarita Singh (Rohtas Nagar) 15. Som Dutt (Sadar Bazar) 16. Sharad Kumar (Narela) 17. Shiv Charan Goel (Moti Nagar) 18. Sukhbir Singh (Mundka) 19. Vijendar Garg (Rajinder Nagar) 20. Jarnail Singh (Tilak Nagar)

However, the MLAs sought a stay on the proceedings before the Election Commission along with communication to the President by the poll panel. The 20 MLAs also claimed that no evidence was led by the complainant.

The MLAs also argued about the hearing on the merits of the case had taken place before the Election Commission, nor any opportunity granted to the petitioners before the poll panel.

Meanwhile, experts feel that Delhi might be expecting mid-term elections soon. After the disqualification, AAP is left with 46 MLAs out of the 66 AAP MLAs.



courtesy:yahoo