The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought the Centre’s reply on a plea by BJP MLAs seeking removal of AAP leader Kailash Gahlot, who was disqualified for holding office of profit, as the Capital’s Transport Minister.
Assembly session
Justice Rekha Palli issued notices to the office of the Delhi Assembly Speaker and Mr. Gahlot, seeking their responses on his continuation as a Minister and attending the ongoing House proceedings. The court, however, did not restrain the disqualified Minister from attending the ongoing Assembly session.
“Prima facie I am inclined to restrain the Minister from attending the House proceedings but I am not doing so. I need to get your [the Centre, the Delhi Assembly Speaker office and Mr. Gahlot’s] response before passing any order,” the court said.
Senior counsel Sanjay Jain, appearing for BJP MLAs Vijender Gupta, O.P. Sharma and Jagdish Pradhan, sought direction for appropriate steps to remove Mr. Gahlot as Delhi Minister.
‘Bench hunting’
Senior advocate Rajiv Nayar, appearing for Mr. Gahlot, opposed the plea of saying they had on Wednesday withdrawn their plea from a Bench, which was scheduled to hear the case and are engaged in “Bench hunting”.
The budget session of the Delhi Assembly started on March 16 and will continue till March 28.
The plea seeks the court’s intervention, claiming that the Speaker’s decision to permit Mr. Gahlot to sit in the House is contrary to the Constitution and the 1991 NCT of Delhi Act.
They have also claimed that once an MLA is disqualified by the Election Commission, he or she cannot continue under any circumstances.
The MLAs had protested against Mr. Gahlot’s presence in the House on the first day of the budget session.
‘Valid objections’
“The BJP MLAs were thrown out of the House with the help of Marshals for raising valid objections against the unlawful presence of Mr. Gahlot,” the counsel for the MLAs contended.
