AAP MLAs plea for interim relief dismissed as withdrawn, petition in Delhi HC to be heard on March 20

A day after the Election Commission’s recommendation to disqualify 20 MLAs of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was approved by President of India Ram Nath Kovind, an application in the Delhi High Court seeking interim relief for the MLAs has been dismissed as withdrawn..The Court, in the last hearing on Friday, had granted time to the counsel for the Election Commission to take instructions as to whether the communication of the decision to disqualify the legislators had been sent to the President..The counsel today submitted before the Bench of Justice Rekha Palli that the said decision had been communicated on January 19..The Court noted that since the decision had been communicated to the President and that the assent of the President to the decision has been notified, the matter was rendered infructuous..The hearing of the writ petition which had been filed earlier regarding the same matter will now be heard on March 20..The matter stems from a petition seeking the disqualification of 20 MLAs of the AAP who were appointed as parliamentary secretaries, for holding an office of profit. State governments are entitled under Article 191 of the Constitution to exclude posts from the scope of ‘office of profit’. A number of Supreme Court decisions have held that state legislatures can legislate retrospectively..Though attempts were made to exclude the post of the parliamentary secretaries from the ambit of ‘office of profit’ by the Arvind Kejriwal government, these did not receive Presidential assent..The matter has assumed great political significance, with some quarters alleging a political vendetta at play. For now, the disqualified MLAs have no interim relief, and will have to wait for close to two months to see what happens at the High Court.