In a boost for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), President Ram Nath Kovind has dismissed a plea to disqualify 27 AAP members of the Delhi Legislative Assembly for allegedly holding office of profit after being appointed as chairpersons of Rogi Kalyan Samitis attached to various city hospitals.
Senior leaders of the AAP, welcoming the order, said the commission had wasted time on a baseless complaint. Expressing its gratitude towards the President upholding the constitutional dignity by dismissing the plea for disqualification of party MLAs, AAP spokesperson Dilip Pandey said the move has defeated the BJP’s attempt at undermining constitutional institutions in the country. He said the move has “failed” the attempt of the BJP to “destabilise” the Kejriwal Government in Delhi and tinker with constitutional norms.
In its opinion, the EC also said, “It is an established fact that some of the respondents have never been appointed to the said office, the finding that the said office falls under exempted category makes it redundant to comment on the cause of non-disqualification individually”.
The President signed the order on October 15 dismissing the plea based on an opinion given by the Election Commission (EC) on July 10. In his order, the President said the petition filed in 2016 was ‘not maintainable’.
Members under consideration in the case included Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, Chandni Chowk MLA Alka Lamba and Deputy Speaker Rakhi Birla.
The EC had found no merit in the plea, moved on June 21, 2016 by advocate Vibhor Anand, who had claimed that the 27 AAP MLAs were in a position to “interfere” in the day-to-day administration of these hospitals and hence held office of profit.
“Now, therefore, having considered the matter in the light of the opinion expressed by the Election Commission of India, I, Ram Nath Kovind, President of India, in exercise of the powers conferred upon me under Section l5(4) of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991, do hereby hold that the petition dated June 21, 2016, filed by Anand, on the question of alleged disqualification of Alka Lamba and 26 other Members of Delhi Legislative Assembly, is not maintainable,” the order signed by the President said.
Petitioner Anand had also claimed that in May, 2015 the Delhi Health Minister had issued directions to all Government hospitals to provide office space to chairperson of the committee, which also attracted provision of the office of profit law.
“It is observed that the office of chairperson in Rogi Kalyan Samitis (Patient Welfare Committees) in hospitals of Government of National Capital Terrirory of Delhi falls under the exempted category as per item 14 of the Schedule of the Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) Act, 1997, and therefore this Commission opines that the respondents are not disqualified for holding Office of Profit,” a full Bench of EC had said in its opinion rendered to the President.
According to an order issued by the Delhi Government’s health and family welfare department on April 26, the ‘Rogi Kalyan Samitis’ are advisory in nature which will assist health facilities, develop and customise strategies among others. It stated that each ‘Assembly Rogi Kalyan Samiti’ will be provided Rs 3 lakh per annum as grand-in aid.
The 27 MLAs against whom the petition was filed are: Alka Lamba (Chandni Chowk), Shiv Charan Goel (Moti Nagar), Jagdeep Singh (Hari Nagar), Bandana Kumari (Shalimar Bagh), Ajesh Yadav (Badli), S K Bagga (Krishna Nagar), Jitendra Singh Tomar (Tri Nagar), Rajesh Rishi (Janak Puri), Rajesh Gupta (Wazirpur), Ram Niwas Goel (Shahdara), Vishesh Ravi (Karol Bagh), Jarnail Singh (Rajauri Garden), Naresh Yadav (Mehrauli). Others are, Nitin Tyagi (Laxmi Nagar), Ved Prakash (Bawana), Somnath Bharti (Malviya Nagar), Pankaj Pushkar (Timarpur), Rajendra Pal Gautam (Seemapuri), Kailash Gehlot (Najafgarh), HazaiLal Chouhan (Patel Nagar), Sharad Kumar Chauhan (Narela), Madan Lal (Kasturba Nagar), Rakhi Birla (Mangolpuri), Mohd Ishraque (Seelampur), Anil Kumar Bajpai (Gandhi Nagar), Surender Singh (Delhi Cantonment), Mohinder Goyal (Rithala). EC pointed out that Ved Prakash had resigned in April, 2017.