On Thursday, High Court of Delhi set aside the Aam Aadmi Party government’s 13th March, 2015, order appointing its 21 MLAs as parliamentary secretaries to assist the ministers.
A bench of Chief Justice Sangita dhingra and Justice G. Rohini passed the order after the counsel appearing for Delhi government “conceded” that the order was issued without taking views of Lieutenant Governor of Delhi.
Sudhir Nandrajog – Senior advocate appeared for Delhi government. He referred to the 4th August judgement passed by the High Court which had quashed several notifications issued by AAP government on the ground that they were issued without taking views of LG.
Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain told the bench during the brief hearing that the Election Commission was also seized the matter pertaining to the appointment of 21 legislators as parliamentary secretaries. The High Court in its 4th August judgement had held that Delhi was a Union Territory and LG remained its administrative head.
On 13th July, the Central government had opposed the appointment of 21 parliamentary secretaries by the Aam Aadmi Party government, saying the post neither finds place in the Constitution, nor does it find a place in the Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) Act of 1997, except for the post of Parliamentary Secretary to the Chief Minister.
It had said the government would not pay salary or provide any other perks, except office space and government transport, to the MLAs.
Election Commission of India is also holding personal hearing of the 21 AAP MLAs who are facing the risk of disqualification from the Assembly, in the Office of Profit case.
Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal had appointed 21 parliamentary secretaries to assist the Delhi government ministers. Thereafter, the government sought an amendment to the Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) Act, 1997.
The President of India Pranab Mukherjee had refused to sign the bill in the month of June, following which the 21 ruling party MLAs did not have legal backing for holding the post of parliamentary secretaries.
The list of 21 MLAs of Aam Aadmi Party who are stand at the risk of Disqualification:
- Jarnail Singh, Rajouri Garden
- Jarnail Singh, Tilak Nagar
- Naresh Yadav, Mehrauli
- Alka Lamba, Chandni Chowk
- Praveen Kumar, Jangpura
- Rajesh Rishi, Janakpuri
- Rajesh Gupta, Wazirpur
- Madan Lal Karturba Nagar
- Vijendra Garg, Rajinder Nagar
- Avtar Singh, Kalkaji
- Sharad Chauhan, Narela
- Sarita Singh, Rohtash Nagar
- Sanjeev Jha, Burari
- Som Dutt, Sadar Bazar
- Shiv Charan Geol, Moti Nagar
- Anil Kumar Vajpayee, Gandhi Nagar
- Manoj Kumar, Kondali
- Nitin Tyagi, Laxmi Nagar
- Sukhbir Singh Dalal, Mundka
- Kailash Gahlot, Najafgarh
- Aadarsh Shastri, Dwarka
