NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday transferred Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs’ appeals against their disqualification to a division bench. The High court said the division bench would hear the matter on Tuesday. The court also continued its interim order to the Election Commission to not announce dates for the Delhi bye-polls until further instructions.
AAP is expecting a relief from the court and already said that they will move to Supreme court as well if High court will not give them relief. “We need justice and we will move to Supreme court as well if it required in the case,” Saurabh Bharadwaj has said.
The bench was hearing a plea filed by the MLAs challenging President Ram Nath Kovind’s decision to disqualify them based on the recommendation of the Election Commission. Bye-elections have to be held within six months after the Ministry of Home Affairs follows up on the president’s order to disqualify the 20 AAP MLAs.
The AAP MLAs alleged that the Election Commission had not given them a fair hearing before sending its recommendation to the president. The 20 MLAs are accused of holding offices of profit in the past as they were appointed parliamentary secretaries to ministers in the Delhi government in March 2015.
The Election Commission had recommended the disqualification of AAP 20 MLAs to the President of India Ram Nath Kovind who accepted the recommendation of EC. The commission did not agree with the defense of the MLAs and wrote to the president that the MLAs “did hold de facto the office of parliamentary secretaries” from March 13, 2015 to September 8, 2016.