Poll panel seeks to cancel membership of 27 MLAs

The Election Commission has sent a fresh complaint seeking cancellation of membership of 27 AAP MLAs over the office of profit issue to President Pranab Mukherjee. The complaint filed by law student Vobhor Anand has alleged that these legislators were holding posts of chairpersons of the Rogi Kalyan Samitis, or patient welfare panels, of different hospitals in violation of the rules. The poll panel is already examining another complaint seeking disqualification of 21 MLAs, who were appointed as parliamentary secretaries to ministers in the AAP government. The Delhi high court had recently set aside the order on the AAP government order on the appointment of parliamentary secretaries. A recent letter issued to president secretariat OSD Abhijeet Rai by Election Commission director (law) Vijay Kumar Pandey said that the petition seeking disqualification of 27 legislators should be placed before Mr Mukherjee for his consideration under sections 15 (3) and (4) of the GNCTD Act 1991. Once the President is convinced that there is some merit in the complaint, he will seek the poll panel’s opinion before taking a final call on the matter. If the President disqualifies any legislator, it will be mandatory for the EC to hold bye-elections within six months in his or her constituency.

Responding to the second complaint, a Delhi government spokesperson had earlier said that the Rogi Kalyan Samitis were set up by the Sheila Dikshit Cabinet on October 5, 2009. “These replaced old committees and this complaint appears to be frivolous.”

At present, AAP has 67 of the 70 legislators in the Delhi Assembly.