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AAP MLAs’ disqualification: Delhi HC hears the specific rules on office of profit

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AAP MLAs leave the Election Commission office. Photo: UNI

The case of the 20 AAP MLAs’ disqualification by the Election Commission (EC) for holding “office of profit” a, disqualification thereafter ratified by President Ram Nath Kovind, saw some interesting turns during hearing before the Delhi High Court bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar on Monday(February 26).

The MLAs have challenged this court, seeing to quash the President’s notification.

During hearing Justice Sanjeev Khanna cited an example of a sale tax matter in which one presiding officer of a bench was not present at the beginning of a matter and joined later on. A writ was filed stating she (the officer) shouldn’t have been permitted as she did not hear all the arguments. The high court is of the view that yes, she can, citing Ravindra Bhatt’s judgment.

The counsel said the case was decided by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, wherein the judge recused himself but later on passed the final order.

The words in pertinent to this case were “prejudice”,  “recussal” and “rejoining”. The bench asked the counsel the meaning of these words.

How does this pertain to the current case? It was about the hearing not given to the MLAs, the judge explained. He stated that no hearing was required to be given to them. Hence nobody was given the hearing.

It was explained that no hearings were heard on the merits. It was only based on the preliminary issue. The counsel for the respondent (Union of India, Ministry of Law and Justice And Ors.) submitted that they did not argue on the factum of office of profit.

The counsel referred to benefits given to MLAs. Among them was government transport for official purposes.

He also referred to the appointment letters issued by te Government of NCT of Delhi under the Chief Minister. It says that they have been given portfolios under separate ministries.

At that the bench asked if reimbursement of expenditure can be treated as office of profit.

The counsel was not sure and said he has to take instruction.

Then the bench made a critical comment. It said “office” must exist earlier and it must remain in existence thereafter also.

Justice Khanna again asked if reimbursement of expenditure comes under the ambit of office of profit. The counsel for EC said reimbursement and allowance are different. Had it been allowance “we could have understood.”

The bench gave the counsel time to take instruction and give a better clarity on the argument.

The counsel for EC said that reimbursement is not profit. He also submitted that the present case is not the case of reimbursement from office. “Why should he be allowed to take a second oath? When a person is already sworn in as an MLA and he again swears in to Parliamentary secretary, tat proves that there is existence of independent office”

Anything more than this shows that they were holding office of profit, he said. He pointed to conveyance allowance. He showed documents filed by GNCTD which to prove that they were holding office of profit.

The settled position is that every MLA is entitled to constituency offices. He pointed out the confusion on number of offices allotted to parliamentary secretaries. He said: “Our area of inquiry was whether as parliamentary secretary they have been provided with any benefits.”

Then the counsel said: “The offices of the MLAs are provided and funded by the departments and not by the government and parties.” This surprised the bench.

The bench asked: “This means you are only entitled to one office, and if the government provides you a second office, does it mean that you are holding office of profit?”

The bench observed: “This will lead to a large number of disqualifications.”

Delhi news

On Camera: Delhi man stabs girl multiple times in Mukherjee Nagar, arrested

The incident was captured on CCTV and has been shared widely on the internet.

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In a shocking incident, a man from Delhi was arrested on Sunday for stabbing a girl multiple times with a knife in the Mukherjee Nagar area in broad daylight. The incident was captured on CCTV and has been shared widely on the internet.

According to reports, the incident took place on March 22. The passers-by intervened and tried to stop and catch the accused. Although, the girl did not suffer grievous injuries in this attack and is out of danger.

The police have identified the accused as Aman. In the CCTV footage, the 22-year-old could be seen stabbing the girl with the knife several times.

It has been known that students in Mukherjee Nagar used to make fun of the accused, Aman, and call him mentally ill as he used to keep roaming in the area, without doing anything.

The woman he targeted would visit Mukherjee Nagar to study in a library. In the surveillance video, the man can be observed sprinting towards the woman, forcefully knocking her down, and subsequently striking her several times.

The man who is under arrest told the police that she ridiculed him, causing him to take a knife from a nearby vegetable vendor and launch an attack on her in a fit of rage.

Last year in April, another incident was reported from Northeast Delhi’s Karawal Nagar where a man killed his live-in partner and dumped her body 12 lm away from a house with the help of his sister.

Police, later, found the body of Rohina Naz alias Mahi, a resident of Uttarakhand’s Mirajpur, lying near Krishna Public School. The police arrested the sister of the accused in this case.

According to the police, the accused, identified as Vineet, was on the run while his sister Parul was arrested for helping him conspire the murder and hide the body.

The 25-year-old Mahi and Vineet eloped four years ago the date of the crime and were living together in Delhi. Deputy Commissioner of Police Joy Tirkey had said that Mahi was pressuring him for marriage and because of this, the couple used to fight frequently.

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Delhi news

Delhi Metro services to begin at 2:30 pm on Holi

Delhi metro services will not be available till 2:30 pm on all Lines of the Delhi Metro including Rapid Metro/Airport Express Line.

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Delhi Metro services will begin at 2:30 pm from terminal stations on all lines on the occasion of Holi, March 25, and will continue normally thereafter.

The Delhi Metro on X, said that the metro train services to start at 2:30 pm on the day of the Holi festival, March 25 (Monday), adding that it said metro services will not be available till 2:30 pm on all Lines of the Delhi Metro including Rapid Metro/Airport Express Line.

Earlier on March 14, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of two additional corridors of Delhi Metro’s Phase 4 at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Thursday. The cost of these 2 corridors of the Delhi Metro Phase 4 project is Rs 8,399 crore. These 2 lines will be 20.762 km long. The construction of these projects is slated for completion by March 2026.

During the press release, the government said that the Inderlok- Indraprastha corridor will be an extension of the Green Line and will provide interchange with the Blue, Violet, Magenta and Airport Line, Yellow and Red lines, while the Lajpat Nagar- Saket G Block corridor will connect Violet, Pink, Magenta and Silver lines.

Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar- Saket G Block corridor will be entirely elevated and have 8 stations, as per the reports. The Inderlok- Indraprastha corridor will have 10 stations. The Prime Minister also interacted with beneficiaries of the PM SVANidhi scheme. He distributed loans under the scheme to 1 lakh street vendors (SVs) including 5000 SVs from Delhi.

According to official records, till now up to Rs 82 lakh loans which amount to Rs 10, 978 crore have been disbursed to more than 62 lakh street vendors all over India. Speaking to the media at the event earlier, the Prime Minister said that the program PM SVANidhi Mahotsav was dedicated to those who are always around us and without whom one cannot imagine our lives.

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Delhi news

7 BJP MLAs suspended from Delhi Assembly’s Budget session for interrupting LG’s address

Pandey said that such behaviour by the BJP MLAs amounted to lowering the dignity of the House.

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Seven out of eight Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) were suspended on Friday for the remainder of the Budget session of the Delhi Assembly for allegedly interrupting Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena’s address.

On Thursday, they were marshalled out of the House for their unruly behaviour. According to the reports, the seven BJP MLAs were interrupting Governor Saxena during his address to the House as they sought to attack the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led-AAP government.

Taking cognisance of the matter, the Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel sent the matter of disruption to the Privileges Committee.

On the second day of the session, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Dilip Kumar Pandey and the party convenor Kejriwal whip in the Assembly. Pandey pointed out the disruption made by the BJP MLAs during the LG’s speech, he said MLAs have disrupted Saxena’s address marking the opening of the budget session at least eight times. He further said that such behaviour by the BJP MLAs amounted to lowering the dignity of the House.

AAP MLA Pandey, later moved a proposal that the matter be referred to the Delhi Assembly Privileges Committee, demanding the suspension of the seven BJP MLAs from the proceedings of the House, until the panel decides on the matter. Through a voice vote, the proposal was passed.

Despite several warnings from the Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, BJP Vijender Gupta interrupted Saxena while he was citing the AAP’s achievements. Following this, the Speaker asked the House marshals to take Gupta out.

Later, when LG Saxena began his address, other leaders from the BJP party continued disrupting him as Saxena cited several Kejriwal government’s achievements.

After all this, the BJP MLAs defied the Goel and refrained from interrupting the Saxena’s address, to which the Speaker had to ask the marshals to take them out of the House too.

The House suspended seven BJP MLAs out of eight, the Leader of Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri was not suspended, however, he walked out with other suspended BJP leaders in protest against the decision of the House to suspend its MLAs.

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