New Delhi: The 20 Aam Aadmi Party MLAs, who were disqualified on Sunday, have withdrawn their petition from the Delhi High Court against the order and will now file a fresh petition.
Sources in the party said that the petitions were filed on January 19 to seek a stay on Election Commission's recommendation of their disqualification, and it was withdrawn keeping in view Sunday’s developments.
Justice Rekha Palli allowed the MLAs to withdraw their plea and termed it "dismissed as withdrawn". Advocate Manish Vashisht, appearing for one of the AAP MLAs, told the court that their application challenging the poll panel's recommendation to the President disqualifying them as legislators has become "infructuous" as a notification in this regard has already been issued on January 20.
The Delhi High Court had on January 19 refused to pass any interim order of protection to AAP MLAs, whose names have been recommended for disqualification as legislators by the Election Commission (EC) for holding office of profit.
In its opinion sent to the President, the EC had said that by being parliamentary secretaries, they held office of profit and were liable to be disqualified as MLAs of the Delhi Assembly.
President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday had approved the poll panel’s recommendation. “We need time to go through the order to avail appropriate legal remedies,” AAP’s lawyer said.
The AAP was quick to denounce the decision, calling it unconstitutional and said it was proof that constitutional authorities were behaving like "handmaidens of the central government".
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that the party would move the high court and would also move the Supreme Court, if needed. So the change in stance seems a bit surprising.
In a blistering attack against the BJP on Sunday, he said that the disqualification of his party’s MLAs was the last resort after all its other tricks failed.
He claimed that the Centre first let lose the CBI on the Delhi government, but failed to find anything despite all its efforts.
“Then, the Delhi Lieutenant Governor seized all our files for four months, but did not find anything out of order,” he said. When they failed, they disqualified our MLAs, he told a public gathering in Najafgarh area in west Delhi.
"They (BJP-led Centre) have tremendously victimised us by imposing fake cases on our MLAs. They conducted CBI raids on me and didn't get anything and today they declared 20 of our MLAs disqualified," he said.
The BJP, on the other hand, welcomed the President's decision and demanded Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's resignation on moral grounds. BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha, however, backed the AAP with the former saying the decision is an example of "tughluqshahi" of the worst order.
The Congress alleged there was a deal between the BJP and AAP, which is why the EC delayed the disqualification recommendation by a month and let AAP send three members to the Rajya Sabha.
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