The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued a “draft order” allowing 20 Aam Aadmi Party legislators, facing allegations of having held offices of profit, to move the Election Commission (EC) for permission to summon witnesses and asked the poll panel to decide it as per the law.
A Bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Chander Shekhar said the draft order will be finalised after all parties give their assent to it.
The draft order came after the conclusion of arguments on the pleas moved by AAP MLAs seeking directions to the EC to permit them to cross-examine the persons who had complained to the poll panel alleging that the legislators were holding the office of profit when they were appointed Parliamentary Secretaries to various State Ministers.
The MLAs had also sought that the Secretary-General of the Legislative Assembly and officers concerned from administration and accounts departments and the State’s Law Ministry be summoned as witnesses to prove that the MLAs did not hold ‘office-of-profit’
The 20 MLAs, including Kailash Gahlot, have in their plea urged that they are allowed to summon the Delhi government officials as witnesses and sought clarification of the High Court’s March 23 decision setting aside their disqualification by the poll panel.
The High Court in its March 23 judgment had termed the poll panel’s recommendation as “vitiated” and “bad in law” and directed it to hear the issue afresh.
