HC seeks EC response on AAP MLAs' plea in office-of-profit case

The Delhi High Court Wednesday sought response of the Election Commission (EC) on a plea by AAP MLAs, facing allegations of having held office-of-profit, challenging the poll panel's decision not to allow them to summon witnesses in the matter.

Justice Siddharth Mridul also sought reply of complainant Prashant Patel on whose plea the EC had earlier recommended disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs.

The court orally asked the EC not to do anything in proceedings scheduled before the poll panel tomorrow and thereafter, till the next date of hearing, November 1.

The court was hearing a petition by Delhi Law Minister and AAP MLA Kailash Gahlot and others challenging the EC's September 25 decision rejecting the legislator's plea to summon government officials as witnesses in the office-of-profit matter pending before the poll panel.

Gahlot was also present in the proceeding before the high court.

During the hearing, senior advocate KV Vishwanathan, appearing for MLAs, said they wanted to examine witnesses regarding the documents which are in record.

He, along with advocate Sameer Vashisht, said their grievance was also related to jurisdiction as during the proceeding before the EC, one of the three-member panel withdrew himself in the middle of the hearing and when the order came, he had signed it.

How can he sign the order when he did not rejoin the hearing, the counsel argued.

They sought to declare that the MLAs are entitled to summon and examine the officials of the Delhi government.

The judge observed that a person has a right to summon witness and the EC can contain him to what is relevant to the case but how can the poll panel preclude him from summoning.

Senior advocate Arvind Nigam, representing the EC, said the documents were already on record and the legislators wanted interpretation of those documents by the officials, whom they are seeking to be summoned as witnesses.

He added that every aspect is being challenged by the MLAs just to delay the process.

EC had on January 19 this year recommended the disqualification of the 20 AAP MLAs, accused of holding offices-of-profit as they were appointed parliamentary secretaries to ministers in the Delhi government in March 2015. This was done soon after they were elected to the Delhi Assembly.

The high court had on August 20 allowed the MLAs to move EC for permission to summon witnesses and had asked the poll panel to decide it as per the law.

On March 23, the high court had set aside the disqualification of the 20 AAP MLAs by the poll panel for holding 'office-of-profit' and had termed the recommendation as "vitiated" and "bad in law". It had directed the EC to hear the issue afresh.

In September 2016, the high court had ruled against their appointment as parliamentary secretaries.

Apart from Gahlot, the other MLAs including Alka Lamba, Adarsh Shastri, Sanjeev Jha, Rajesh Gupta, Vijendra Garg, Praveen Kumar, Sharad Kumar, Madan Lal, Shiv Charan Goyal, Sarita Singh, Naresh Yadav, Rajesh Rishi, were disqualified.

AAP legislators Anil Kumar, Som Dutt, Avtar Singh, Sukhvir Singh Dala, Manoj Kumar, Nitin Tyagi and Jarnail Singh were also disqualified.