President Ram Nath Kovind (Express Photo/Anand Singh)
In a relief to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), President Ram Nath Kovind, based on the opinion of the Election Commission (EC), rejected a plea to disqualify 27 MLAs for allegedly holding offices of profit while heading patient welfare committees in different city hospitals.
President Kovind signed the order on October 15, more than three months after the Commission tendered its opinion giving all legislators a clean chit. The complaint, filed by law student Vibhor Anand, had challenged the appointment of the 27 MLAs as chairpersons of Rogi Kalyan Samitis.
Anand had argued that legislators can only become members of the committees and not their chairpersons. Therefore, he had urged the president to disqualify the MLAs as they were holding offices of profit in contravention of the Representation of the People Act.
The EC, in its opinion dated July 10, had found that the posts were exempted from being offices of profit under Item 11 of the Schedule of the Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) Act, 1997. Item 11 exempts the office of chairman, vice-chairman and member of the hospital advisory committee and, since, the Rogi Kalyan Samitis performed the same function as the hospital advisory committee, the Commission saw no merit in Anand’s complaint. Further, the EC noted that as chairpersons of the said committees, the MLAs were not entitled to any remuneration.
The term ‘Office of Profit’, as defined in the Constitution, prohibits MPs and MLAs from accepting government positions that carry some financial remuneration, or any other benefit such as office space or even a car. Any violation of this provision attracts disqualification of the legislator. The aim of this provision is to preserve the independence of the legislature by keeping its members away from any temptations from the executive.
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Reacting to the President’s decision to dismiss Anand’s complaint, AAP said in a statement on Thursday that “such a fake complaint should have been consigned to the dustbin by the Rashtrapati Bhawan itself during the tenure of the previous President, and should not have been forwarded to the Election Commission in the first place.”
The party further said: “Unfortunately, however, this did not happen and a bogus complaint was allowed to be publicised to create a doubt in the minds of the people and this tamasha was allowed to linger on for two years.”
The AAP’s troubles are still not over as the Commission is currently hearing a separate petition accusing 20 MLAs of holding offices of profit as parliamentary secretaries to ministers in the state government.