A day after the President disqualified 20 AAP MLAs from the Delhi Assembly on the recommendation of the Election Commission for purportedly holding ‘offices of profit’, the newly appointed Chief Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat told the Indian Express that the party should have asked the EC for hearings in the case, but did not.
Referring to two earlier opportunities that were provided to the party by the Commission, Rawat said that the notices dated 28 September and 2 November required the specified MLAs to submit a written explanation with regard to information provided by the Delhi government on the post of parliamentary secretaries.
The MLAs however, instead, urged the EC to stall the case till the Delhi High Court hear their challenge to an earlier EC order of 23 June 2017.
In the 23 June order, the EC dismissed the AAP’s plea which stated that since the high court had said that holding the position of parliamentary secretaries is not illegal, they could not be disqualified for holding ‘office of profit’.
Speaking to IE, Rawat said:
These (two) notices were issued only for that (purpose). If they felt the need or imperative for oral evidences, then they should have pointed it out and we would have fixed a date for hearing.
Rawat had earlier recused himself from all AAP-related cases after Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had insinuated that he was close to the ruling party in a media interview. The party also demanded along with their written submission that the office of profit case be heard by a full quorum, and not just Rawat. The Commission in return had hit out at the AAP for their plea, stating that they were deliberately attempting to stall the proceedings.
After recusing himself from the case on 19 April 2017, Rawat rejoined the case on CEC AK Joti’s request in July, following former CEC Nazim Zaidi’s retirement. The final opinion submitted by the EC to the President recommending the disqualification was signed by Rawat.
The Commission on Friday had suggested that the 20 MLAs in question be disqualified from their state Assembly seats for holding positions as parliamentary secretaries to Cabinet ministers in the Delhi government. The President, acting on this advice, disqualified them on Saturday.
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