New Delhi: In a jolt to Delhi’s ruling AAP government, President Pranab Mukherjee has refused to give assent to a legislation that protects 21 party MLAs, who have been appointed Parliamentary Secretaries, and face the prospect of disqualification.

Petitions have been filed with the President seeking disqualification of these MLAs on the ground that they occupied office of profit violating constitutional provisions.

Acting as a quasi judicial body, the Election Commission to whom the President referred the issue, had sought replies of the MLAs.

The Delhi Government had sought an amendment to the Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) Act, 1997.

Through the Bill, the AAP government wanted “retrospective” exemption for the parliamentary secretaries from disqualification provisions.

The Bill was forwarded by Lt Governor Najeeb Jung to the Centre, which in turn was sent to the President with its comments.

After examining the issue, the President has not given his assent to the Bill, official sources said today.

On March 13, 2015, Kejriwal had passed an order appointing the 21 party MLAs as Parliamentary Secretaries.

Among the 21 parliamentary secretaries who have been appointed by CM are Praveen Kumar to education minister, Sharad Kumar to Revenue Minister, Adarsh Shastri to Information and Technology Minister, Madan Lal to Vigilance Minister, Charan Goel to Finance Minister, Sanjeev Jha to Transport Minister, Sarita Singh to Employment Minister, Naresh Yadav to Labour Minister, Jarnail Singh to Minister of Development, Rajesh Gupta to Health Minister and Rajesh Rishi to Health Minister.

Apart from them, MLAs – Anil Kumar Bajpai has been parliamentary secretary to Health Minister followed by Som Dutt to Industries Minister, Avtar Singh Kalka to Minister of Gurudwara elections, Vijender Garg Vijay to Minister of PWD, Jarnail Singh to Minister of Power, Kailash Gahlot to Minister of Law, Alka Lamba to Minister of Tourism, Manoj Kumar to Minister of Food and Civil Supplies, Nitin Tyagi to Minister of Women and Child and Social Welfare and Sukhvir Singh to Minister of Languages and Welfare of SC/ST/OBC.

AAP holds emergency meet, discusses rejection of bill by Prez

New Delhi: AAP today held an emergency meeting to deliberate on possible situation if 21 of its MLAs appointed as Parliamentary Secretary lose membership of the Delhi Assembly on the ground of holding office of profit as a city government brought bill to give them immunity was rejected by the President.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal reacted sharply to the development and targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that he does not respect democracy and was only fearful of the AAP.

The meeting presided over by Kejriwal deliberated on President Pranab Mukherjee refusing to give assent to the Bill to exclude the post of Parliamentary Secretary from the office of profit.

At the meeting, many AAP leaders were severely critical of the Centre as they said President rejected the Bill on the recommendation of the Modi government.

Kejriwal took to the twitter to express his anger. He said no MLA was given a single paisa, car or bungalow in their capacity as Parliamentary Secretary and said they were giving services for free.

“Modiji says all of you sit at home. Should not work,” he said adding MLAs were tasked to look after power supply, water supply, functioning of hospitals and schools.

“Modiji says neither will work nor will allow to work,” Kejriwal said.

The refusal by the President to give assent to the bill puts a question mark over the membership of the 21 AAP MLAs, who were appointed Parliamentary Secretaries.

The Delhi Government had sought an amendment to the Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) Act, 1997 through which it had sought “retrospective” exemption for the parliamentary secretaries from disqualification provisions.

The Bill was forwarded by Lt Governor Najeeb Jung to the Centre, which in turn was sent to the President with its comments.

Petitions have been filed with the President seeking disqualification of the these MLAs on the ground that they occupied office of profit in violation of Constitution.

Acting as a quasi judicial body, the Election Commission to whom the President referred the issue has sought replies of the MLAs.

PTI