In a blow to the Aam Aadmi Party legislators embroiled in the Office of Profit row, the Election Commission on Friday refused to entertain fresh allegations in a petition seeking disqualification of 2
In a blow to the Aam Aadmi Party legislators embroiled in the Office of Profit row, the Election Commission on Friday refused to entertain fresh allegations in a petition seeking disqualification of 21 AAP MLAs who were appointed as the parliamentary secretaries, even as it rejected the plea of the legislators not to take cognisance of the so-called second application filed in the case.
It also fixed September 23 as the next date of hearing. On August 29, it had reserved its order on the plea of AAP MLAs to reject the so-called second petition. The commission, in its order said, “the contents of paras...Make some extraneous/additional allegations and insinuations. Accordingly, these paragraphs...Are directed to be struck off from the reply dated December 28, 20l5 (the so-called second petition) of the petitioner.”
In other words, the commission refused to expand the scope of the original petition by not agreeing to include “additional allegations” filed through the second petition.
The first petition was filed by advocate Prashant Patel before the President on June 19, 2015 seeking disqualification of the 21 AAP legislators for allegedly holding office of profit. He had filed additional documents as sought by the EC. But the AAP had claimed that additional documents in effect were a second petition which should not be entertained.
