Former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Kartar Singh Tanwar has filed a plea before the Delhi High Court challenging his disqualification from the Delhi Legislative Assembly on grounds of defection [Kartar Singh Tanwar v. Speaker Legislative Assembly, Government of NCT of Delhi & Anr].
Tanwar claims that he was disqualified by the Assembly Speaker without being given an opportunity of personal hearing.
Tanwar added that due to health reasons, that were known to the Speaker, he (Tanwar) was unable to personally appear in the enquiry proceedings initiated by the Speaker on the defection allegations.
Justice Sanjeev Narula on Friday issued notice and sought the Speaker's response in the matter. A reply has also been sought from MLA Dilip Pandey whose petition led to Tanwar's disqualification.
Kartar Singh Tanwar was an MLA who was elected to the Delhi Legislative Assembly on an AAP ticket, representing the Chhatarpur constituency.
MLA Dilip Kumar Pandey (arrayed as the respondent no. 2 in Tanwar's petition) had filed a disqualification petition in August 2024 before the Speaker, seeking Tanwar’s disqualification on the grounds of defection,
Pandey claimed that Tanwar had defected from AAP and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Speaker passed an order disqualifying Tanwar on September 24.
This has now been challenged by Tanwar in a petition filed through Advocates Neeraj and Satya Ranjan Swain.
In his plea, Tanwar has argued that he has always remained true to the ideology and objectives for which the AAP had been formed. However, he says that the party has now derailed from its ideas, principles and ideologies, so much so that he now longer considers it to be the same party. In this regard he has referred to the corruption allegations against AAP leaders such as Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain and Sanjay Singh.
“Having such leaders is an embarrassment for Delhiites and does not give a feeling of pride to the party workers …The party has already died its natural death and the Petitioner cannot be said to have voluntarily given up his membership of such party,” Tanwar’s plea said.
From this standpoint, he has argued that the allegations made against him are motivated and false.
He also expressed reservations about whether the Speaker was neutral enough to decide on the disqualification plea against him. Tanwar has contended that the Speaker has acted as an “agent of the ruling political party” and issued the disqualification order with haste and without letting him (Tanwar) argue his case fully.
The matter is listed for hearing next on December 9.
Senior Advocate Jayant Mehta with Advocates Neeraj, Satya Ranjan Swain, Vijay Joshi, Amit Tiwari, Sidharth Khatana, Piyush Beriwal, Shoumendu Mukherji, Kautilya Birat, Ankush Kapoor, Diva Saigal, Puneet Dhawan and Amit Gupta appeared for Kartar Singh Tanwar.
Senior Advocate Sudhir Nandrajog, with Advocate Sameer Vashisht appeared for the Speaker and Dilip Kumar Pandey.