The Delhi High Court on Wednesday reserved its order on the plea challenging 20 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs’ disqualification…
Delhi High Court (PHOTO: Facebook)
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday reserved its order on the plea challenging 20 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs’ disqualification in the office-of-profit case.
The court ruled: “Arguments heard. Judgement reserved.”
The ruling by a bench comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Chander Shekhar came after the MLAs, the Election Commission of India (EC) and the other parties concerned concluded their arguments.
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On Tuesday, the MLAs had told the court that the EC’s order disqualifying them for allegedly holding an office of profit was pronounced without providing them an opportunity to explain their stand and, therefore, it was in “complete violation of natural justice”.
The legislators also pleaded for their case to be remanded to the EC with a direction that it should be heard afresh.
The matter was brought to the High Court by the MLAs challenging their disqualification after the EC’s recommendation, given on 19 January, got President Ram Nath Kovind’s stamp.
The High Court, which had been hearing the MLAs’ plea on a day-to-day basis since 7 February, had on 24 January declined to stay the Centre’s notification disqualifying them.
The court had, however, restrained the EC from going ahead with any “precipitate measures” like announcing dates for holding by-elections in the constituencies concerned.
The 20 disqualified AAP MLAs included Alka Lamba, Adarsh Shastri, Sanjeev Jha, Rajesh Gupta, Kailash Gahlot, Vijendra Garg, Praveen Kumar, Sharad Kumar, Madan Lal Khufiya, Shiv Charan Goyal, Sarita Singh, Naresh Yadav, Rajesh Rishi, Anil Kumar, Som Dutt, Avtar Singh, Sukhvir Singh Dala, Manoj Kumar, Nitin Tyagi and Jarnail Singh.
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