Office Of Profit: 20 AAP MLAs Move High Court Against Disqualification

Twenty AAP MLAs today moved the Delhi High Court challenging their disqualification for holding office of profit.

The plea for urgent hearing of the appeal was mentioned before a bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and AK Chawla, which listed it for tomorrow.

Advocate Manish Vashisht, appearing for one of the MLAs, submitted before the bench that the matter requires urgent listing in view of the notification disqualifying 20 members of the Delhi Legislative Assembly.

The plea by the MLAs has also sought stay and quashing of the government's notification stating the President had held that the 20 MLAs stand disqualified under the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act.

The notification came two days after the Election Commission wrote to the President recommending the disqualification of 20 Aam Aadmi Party MLAs for holding office of profit while serving as Parliamentary Secretaries between March 13, 2015 and Sept. 8, 2016.

The 20 MLAs include: Adarsh Shastri (Dwarka), Alka Lamba (Chandni Chowk), Anil Bajpai (Gandhi Nagar), Avtar Singh (Kalkaji), Kailash Gahlot (Najafgarh) -- who is also a minister -- Madan Lal (Kasturba Nagar), Manoj Kumar (Kondli), Naresh Yadav (Mehrauli), Nitin Tyagi (Laxmi Nagar), Praveen Kumar (Jangpura).

The others are Rajesh Gupta (Wazirpur), Rajesh Rishi (Janakpuri), Sanjeev Jha (Burari), Sarita Singh (Rohtas Nagar), Som Dutt (Sadar Bazar), Sharad Kumar (Narela), Shiv Charan Goel (Moti Nagar), Sukhbir Singh (Mundka), Vijendar Garg (Rajinder Nagar) and Jarnail Singh (Tilak Nagar).