By Devika Bedi
The Delhi High Courts decision setting the aside the disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs and referring the matter back to the Election Commission has come as a huge relief to the party, to say the least. The poll panel on January 19 had recommended disqualification of the MLAs for holding offices of profit. The AAP was quick to hit out at the poll panel, questioning its integrity and accusing it of pushing the BJPs agenda.
A sigh of relief
After an administrative tussle with the Election Commission, Aam Aadmi Party has been given relief. ECs ruling that disqualified 20 MLAs from the party accused of holding office for profit as parliamentary secretaries in July last year was ruled over by the Supreme Court on March 23. This has not only restored AAPs strength before the upcoming assembly elections but has also given the party a good start to the campaign trail.
The hanging sword
Sighting various reasons for keeping aside centres decision, the SC has sent the decision back to EC for a revised hearing. The court sighted the absence of any oral hearing and a formal notice to the MLAs about the Chief Election Commissioner, O.P. Rawat joining the hearings. The CEC had earlier decided to step down from participating in the trial. The court said that the Election Commission had practised, “complete violation of natural justice” and had not given the accused a chance to put forth their stand. The relief, however, may prove to be temporary. The ball is back in the Election Commissions court to decide the fate of the accused MLAs but with proper and fair proceedings.
The court has just ordered the poll panel to hear the 20 AAP MLAs again. It is just a temporary relief for the party as the ECI will start hearing the case in the next few weeks. The process will take months. It is unlikely that the ECI will move the Supreme Court against the High Court order as they will just have to listen to the versions of the AAP MLAs. Though the order, we can say, is a dent on the ECIs image, S K Sharma, a constitutional expert, said.
AAP won the elections with huge numbers and had a significant number of MLAs to carry assembly proceedings; few MLAs had purposely not attended and been outside in protest. The assembly cannot function if at least one-third of the MLAs are not present. The recent decision has given back AAP its numbers. Party chief Arvind Kejriwal thanks the court for restoring developmental work in the city. He says actions and decisions have been pending and the work has been on halt after the ECs unexplained ruling. He tweeted: “MLAs were wrongly disqualified and Delhi High Court has brought justice to the people of Delhi.” AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said, Now that disqualification has been struck down, we want that the MLAs come and join assembly proceedings today itself.
Agenda of 2020 election
Bharatiya Janata Party is preparing tough and thorough for the soon approaching Delhi assembly elections and warns AAP to begin earning the trust of people before it loses. AAP, in the latest stunt, has leveraged time to kick-start the aggressive campaign. The ruling has come after an impressive 35000 crore state budget passed by incumbent AAP government: The largest in the history of all Delhi budgets. The party now focuses to win peoples trust and pressurize the EC to withdraw all accusations against them in order to build image and reputation they had won in 2015.