A day after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected the Delhi government’s dual office of profit Bill, the Congress has said it is ready for elections in 21 Delhi Assembly seats and said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal “did not have the moral right to remain in power”. The Kejriwal government had passed the Bill, seeking exemption for the post of parliamentary secretary from the dual office of profit law. As a result, 21 party legislators may now face disqualification as they were appointed as parliamentary secretaries in 2015.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission is reportedly preparing to call the 21 Aam Aadmi Party MLAs for a hearing. Officials in the EC told dna that the hearing might take place soon, and that if the EC disqualifies the 21 legislators, fresh elections will need to be held for those seats. The EC had earlier this year issued notices to the MLAs on the issue. Both the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party have supported the disqualification of the legislators in question.
Kejriwal on Tuesday claimed that the parliament secretaries all worked in the post for free. He said they were all given a notification that said they will not be “eligible for any remuneration or any kind of perk”. The Delhi chief minister had launched another attack on Modi as well, alleging that the prime minister was behind the president's decision to reject the Bill. He questioned whether Modi was “not allowing the Delhi government to function because he is unable to digest defeat in Delhi”.
A Supreme Court order passed in 2006, in a case regarding Jaya Bachchan, said that even if the holder of the office chose not to avail of perks, it would still be considered an office of profit, according to The Hindu. Bachchan had been disqualified from the Rajya Sabha for holding a dual office of profit.
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