11 AAP MLAs not disqualified for holding office of profit

 President Ram Nath Kovind has in an order said that AAP MLA Sanjeev Jha and 10 other party members of the Delhi Legislative Assembly are not disqualified for holding office of profit.

In an order dated October 28, the President said a reference was made on April 7, 2017 seeking the opinion of the Election Commission on the question whether Jha and 10 others MLAs should be disqualified for holding Office of Profit.

The reference was made by Advocate and RTI activist Vivek Garg, who sought disqualification of the AAP MLAs -- Sanjeev Jha, Nitin Tyagi, Praveen Kumar, Pawan Kumar Sharma, Shri Dutt Sharma, Rajesh Gupta, Sarita Singh, Dinesh Mohania, Amanatullah Khan, Kailash Gahlot and Jarnail Singh.

Garg had alleged that the MLAs are liable to be disqualified for holding 'Office of Profit' by occupying the office of Co-Chairperson in District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMA) of 11 districts of Delhi.

The Delhi government had said that the Co-Chairperson of DDMA is neither entitled to any remuneration by way of salary, allowances, sitting fee etc. nor any other facility such as staff car/transportation allowance. Moreover, there is also no provision for office space, supporting staff, residence, telephone or camp office.

In view of the replies received from the Delhi government, the Election Commission made it clear that the DDMA is a statutory body constituted by the government of Delhi and its co-chairpersons are not entitled to any remuneration.

The Election Commission in its opinion said that the 11 AAP MLAs "are not disqualified for holding Office of Profit, the President's order said, and he therefore decided that the 11 MLAs were not disqualified", the statement said.IANS