In a major setback to the Aam Aadmi Party, President Pranab Mukherjee has on Monday denied to give assent to a legislation that protects 21 party MLAs, who have been appointed Parliamentary Secretaries and face the prospect of disqualification.
Earlier in march, Kejriwal had passed an order appointing the 21 party legislators, including Alka Lamba, Jarnail Singh, Adarsh Shastri and Rajesh Gupta, as parliamentary secretaries.
Challenging the appointments as unconstitutional, Delhi lawyer Prashant Patel, based at Karkardooma Court, had sent a petition to the President’s office after the state cabinet cleared the proposal keeping parliamentary secretaries out of the office-of-profit purview on June 19.
Soon after the President’s disapproval was made, Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter and lashed out on Prime Minister Modi:
On the other hand, Earlier today Kejriwal made a statement that Modi says that Sonia Gandhi is not allowing the Parliament to function because she can’t digest defeat, I want to ask Modi is he not allowing Delhi Government to function because he is unable to digest defeat in Delhi.
Why is Modi only behind disqualifying Delhi’s Parliament Secretary Haryana, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat and others have Parliament Secretary too, the minister added.
The 21 AAP MLAs had registered their replies to the Election Commission in response to a show-cause notice, on why they should not be disqualified for occupying offices of profit in violation of the Constitution.
An organisation called the Rashtriya Mukti Morcha had petitioned the Delhi High Court, contending that these 21 legislators enjoy the status and perks of ministers including office space and official cars, which is a misuse of the taxpayer’s money.
The PIL alleges that these appointments are “unconstitutional, illegal and without jurisdiction” and should be cancelled, pointing that the Delhi Government can have a maximum of seven ministers.
It also contends that along with seven ministers in Kejriwal’s Cabinet, these 21 people with minister status exceed that limit.
When the Parliamentary Secretaries were appointed, the AAP Government had said that they would facilitate smooth government functioning, but made it clear they would not receive any remuneration or perk of any kind, which would become a burden on the exchequer.
The order, however, permits them to use government transport for official purposes and has earmarked space in the ministers’ offices to help them in official work.
The petition argues that the Chief Minister has “no power, jurisdiction or authority” to administer oath of office to the Parliamentary Secretaries.
A petition has alleged that 21 legislators occupied offices of profit in violation of the Constitution.
Wefornews Bureau
