Office of Profit case: Petitioner opposes AAP MLAs plea to cross-examine him

The petitioner who had sought disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs before the Election Commission for allegedly holding office of profit, today opposed their plea to cross examine him, saying the move is aimed at prolonging the hearing.

During the past four hearings, the Delhi AAP lawmakers have been pressing for cross examination of petitioner Prashant Patel, and officials of the state assembly and state government to prove that by being appointed parliamentary secretaries, they were not holding any office of profit.

Appearing for Patel, senior advocate Meet Malhotra told the Commission that the plea to cross examine him has been filed to prolong the case till the time their term as MLA is over.

He asked the Commission to dismiss the MLAs' plea for cross-examination and expedite and conclude the hearing at the earliest.

The AAP lawmakers have said it was important that the officials were cross-examined to ascertain if they had derived any profit as parliamentary secretaries.

The hearing will continue tomorrow following which the EC would deliver the order whether the plea to cross examine Patel and others holds merit.

The EC had, on May 16, resumed the hearing in the case after the Delhi High Court set aside the disqualification of the AAP MLAs for allegedly holding offices of profit.

In an application filed before the EC, the MLAs had said they would like to cross-examine the secretary of the Delhi legislative assembly and officials of the law and accounts departments of the Delhi government to verify whether they had derived any "profit" from their work, used official cars and office space while carrying out their duties.

The officials had filed documents before the EC on the office-of-profit issue.

The MLAs also demanded that the complainant, Prashant Patel, be cross-examined.

The EC had, on January 19, recommended the disqualification of the 20 AAP MLAs. President Ram Nath Kovind had accepted the poll panel's opinion the next day.