The Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta, along with other Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs, called on Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal to lodge a complaint against what they termed was an “unconstitutional act” by the Kejriwal government to allow disqualified MLA Kailash Gahlot to continue as Minister and attend Assembly proceedings.
The BJP delegation urged Mr. Baijal to act upon their complaint and “take all steps to uphold the Constitution” by removing Mr. Gahlot, who was disqualified in an office of profit case as per a Presidential order, from the Delhi Cabinet as well as disallow him from attending the proceedings of the House.
MLAs O.P. Sharma and Jagdish Pradhan were also present in the meeting.
“I submitted before the L-G that Mr. Gahlot was appointed as a Minister because he was an MLA. Since he was disqualified as an MLA, he cannot continue as Minister,” Mr. Gupta said.
“He, along with 20 MLAs, was disqualified by the Election Commission with retrospective effect from 2015. He was appointed as a Minister in May 2017. Even at that point of time he was not an MLA. Therefore, he cannot continue as Minister even for a day in the given timeline. He should have been immediately removed from the government,” Mr. Gupta added.
The delegation said in a statement that it also submitted to the L-G that Rule 43 (2) of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991, held that a Minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the Legislative Assembly shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a Minister.
Mr. Gupta argued that it is not written either in the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991, or the Rules of Procedure of the House that a member of the Legislative Assembly who is declared disqualified from being member of the Assembly can hold a ministerial position for six months.
“The Aam Aadmi Party Delhi government is thus, acting absolutely illegally and immorally by retaining Mr. Gahlot as Minister just by twisting the constitutional provisions in an arbitrary manner,” Mr. Gupta alleged.
