About half a dozen out of the 21 parliamentary secretaries of the AAP government on Friday sought free government lawyers from the Election Commission, which refused to oblige and fixed August 29 for the next hearing.
Defending themselves from disqualification from Assembly over allegedly holding an office of profit, AAP legislators including Nitin Tyagi of Laxmi Nagar, Rajesh Gupta of Wazirpur and Rajesh Rishi of Janakpuri said they need free laywers as they cannot afford fees of advocates.
“The EC rejected their request,” said advocate Prashant Patel, who has filed the petitions seeking the 21 parliamentary secretaries disqualification from Assembly. Patel told Deccan Herald that he opposed the attempts of AAP legislators to delay the proceedings by seeking free government lawyers.
“I pleaded that free lawyers are made available to only below poverty line (BPL) litigants. The MLAs are not poor as they are drawing salary from the Assembly,” said Patel. The EC gave the legislators a last chance to present their side on August 29 themselves or come with their lawyers to do so, said Patel.
Last month, the EC rejected plea of the Delhi government to be made a party in the matter and requests of the Congress and a BJP leader to be allowed to assist the court of EC in the matter. The Commission, however, said it would seek help of these parties if the need arises in future.
During the hearing on Wednesday and earlier, the legislators claimed that they did not enjoy any pecuniary benefit while holding the post of parliamentary secretaries.
The cloud over the future of 21 parliamentary secretaries is linked to President Pranab Mukherjee’s recent refusal to give assent to the Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) Act, 1997 of June 24 2015 that aims to protect with retrospective effect 21 party MLAs, who have been appointed parliamentary secretaries, from disqualification under “office of profit” provisions.
Published 20 August 2016, 02:33 IST