Delhi BJP MLAs move HC to restrain minister from attending Assembly session

Delhi BJP MLAs today moved the high court seeking that Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot be restrained from attending the ongoing Assembly proceedings as he has been disqualified as an MLA for holding office of profit.

The plea, challenging the continuance of Gahlot as a minister, was mentioned before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar, which listed it for hearing tomorrow.

The budget session of the Delhi Assembly started on March 16 and will continue till March 28.

The Election Commission had recommended the disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs for holding office of profit on January 19. The president had accepted the poll panel's opinion the very next day.

The MLAs have challenged their disqualification order in the high court, which is yet to pronounce the judgment.

Advocates Balendu Shekhar and Neeraj Kumar mentioned the petition on behalf of the four BJP MLAs -- Vijender Gupta, O P Sharma, Jagdish Pradhan and Manjinder Singh Sirsa.

The MLAs, in their petition, have also questioned the reasoning of the assembly speaker in allowing Gahlot to attend the house on the grounds that he has six months since the disqualification to get re-elected.

The plea seeks the court's intervention, saying the speaker's decision to permit Gahlot to sit in the House is contrary to the Constitution and the 1991 NCT of Delhi Act.

They have submitted that once an MLA has been disqualified by the EC, he or she cannot continue under any circumstances.

The MLAs had protested against Gahlot's presence in the House on the first day of the budget session.