President rejects petition for disqualification of 27 AAP MLAs in Office of Profit case

A petition seeking disqualification of 27 Aam Aadmi Party MLAs has been dismissed by President Ram Nath Kovind on the opinion of the Election Commission.

The petition filed by one Vibhor Anand seeking their disqualification on the ground that they were holding Office of Profit by being the chairperson of Rogi Kalyan Samiti in the government hospitals in Delhi, was dismissed by the President as not "maintainable".

Earlier, the Election Commission in its opinion had said that the office of chairperson in Rogi Kalyan Samiti in hospitals of Delhi government fell under the exempted category of the Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) Act, 1997 and therefore the MLAs are not disqualified for holding Office of Profit.

"It is pertinent to note that while it is an established fact that some of the respondents have never been appointed to the said office, the finding that the said office falls under exempted category makes it redundant to comment on the cause of non-disqualification individually," the three-member Commission headed by Chief Election Commissioner O.P.Rawat said in its opinion.

Those MLAs against whom the petition was filed were Alka Lamba (Chandni Chowk), Shiv Charan Goel (Moti Nagar), Jagdeep Singh (Hari Nagar), Bandana Kumari (Shalimar Bagh), Ajesh Yadav (Badli), S.K. Bagga (Krishna Nagar), Jitendra Singh Tomar (Tri nagar), Rajesh Rishi (Janakpuri), Rajesh gupta (Wazirpur), Ram Niwas Goel (Shahdara), Vishesh Ravi (Karol Bagh), Jarnail Singh (Rajauri Garden), Naresh Yadav (Mehrauli), Nitin Tyagi (Laxmi Nagar), Ved Prakash (Bawana), Somnath Bharti (Malviya Nagar), Pankaj Pushkar (Timarpur), Rajendra pal Gautam (Seemapuri), Kailash Gahlot (Najafgarh), Hazarilal Chouhan (Patel Nagar), Sharad Kumar Chauhan (Narela), Madan Lal (Kasturba Nagar), Rakhi Birla (Mangolpuri), Mohammad Ishraque (Seelampur), Anil Kumar Bajpai (Gandhi Nagar), Surender Singh (Delhi Cantonment) and Mohinder Goyal (Rithala).

--IANS

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