AAP MLAs' disqualification: Delhi HC refers matter to Division Bench

New Delhi: A Division Bench of the Delhi High Court will now hear the plea of eight Delhi MLAs of AAP who challenged their disqualification for holding office of profit as Parliamentary Secretaries.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru on Monday transferred the matter to the Division Bench for hearing on Tuesday.

The Aam Aadmi Party's since-disqualified lawmakers had moved the High Court last week.

Their counsel argued that the impugned notification is a "gross violation of natural justice because the Election Commission decided the matter in undue haste and without affording and giving any opportunity of fair hearing to the petitioners".

Following an Election Commission recommendation to President Ram Nath Kovind, the Law and Justice Ministry on Saturday issued a notification that the President had okayed the disqualification of the 20 MLAs.

The disqualified MLAs are Alka Lamba, Adarsh Shastri, Sanjeev Jha, Rajesh Gupta, Kailash Gahlot, Vijendra Garg, Praveen Kumar, Sharad Kumar, Madan Lal Khufiya, Shiv Charan Goyal, Sarita Singh, Naresh Yadav, Rajesh Rishi, Anil Kumar, Som Dutt, Avtar Singh, Sukhvir Singh Dala, Manoj Kumar, Nitin Tyagi, and Jarnail Singh.

Eight of them had requested the court to quash the EC's opinion dated January 19 and an official gazette notification dated January 20 published on January 21.

The petitioners' counsel said that the Ministry of Law and Justice issued the notification on the opinion rendered by the Election Commission, which is "unconstitutional".