Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MlAs have sought six weeks’ time from the Election Commission of India to respond to its show-cause notice over their appointment as Parliamentary Secretaries by the Delhi Government last year. As per the notice, the 21 AAP legislators, who were appointed as Parliamentary Secretaries almost a year ago, have been asked to file their replies before the ECI by May 10.
The Commission has earlier issued show-cause notice to 21 Parliamentary Secretaries seeking their response on why they should not be disqualified, on the basis of a petition filed by Delhi-based advocate Prashant Patel. It has asked to file reply by April 11. The petition alleged that the said MlAs occupied offices of profit in violation of the Constitution of India.
Top sources told The Pioneer that 21 AAP MlAs have sought six weeks time to file their reply. Apart from two women MlAs, including Chandni Chowk and Rohtas Nagar legislators Alka lamba and Sarita Singh, respectively, the list includes prominent AAP legislators such as Dwarka MlA Adarsh Shastri, Rajouri Garden MlA Jarnail Singh and Tilak Nagar MlA Jarnail Singh.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had appointed 21 members of the Delhi legislature Assembly as Parliamentary Secretaries to Ministers for “smooth functioning” of the Government on March 14, 2015.
The move was severely criticised not only by the BJP but the Congress too. Going a step further, an NGO Rashtriya Mukti Morcha had challenged the move by filing a PIl in the Delhi High Court. The petition quoted significantly from a judgment of the High Court of Calcutta which, on June 2, 2015, had struck down the appointment of 21 Parliamentary Secretaries to the Bengal Ministry. The Court had held that the “Parliamentary Secretaries are in fact Ministers though they function under a different title or nomenclature”.