NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday allowed 20 Aam Aadmi Party legislators, facing allegations of having held office-of-profit, to move the Election Commission (EC) for permission to summon witnesses and asked the poll panel to decide it as per the law.
A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar had on August 16 issued a "draft order" along these lines, which was finalised after both the EC and the MLAs consented to it.
The order came after the conclusion of arguments on the pleas moved by the AAP MLAs seeking directions to the EC to permit them to cross-examine the person who had complained to the poll panel alleging that the legislators were holding offices of profit when they were appointed as Parliamentary Secretaries to various state ministers.
The MLAs had also sought that the Secretary-General of the Legislative Assembly and the concerned officers from the administration and accounts departments and the state's Law Ministry be summoned as witnesses to prove that the legislators did not hold an office-of-profit.
The court did not issue any direction on the plea to cross-examine the complainant as the EC had earlier said it was not relying on his complaint.
The 20 MLAs, including Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot, had moved the high court seeking a clarification of its March 23 order so that they can summon Delhi government officials as witnesses.
The court, in its judgment, had termed the poll panel's recommendation as 'vitiated' and "bad in law" and directed it to hear the issue afresh.
In the proceedings before the EC, the MLAs, represented by advocates Manish Vashisht and Sameer Vashisht, had said that they should be allowed to cross-examine the complainants and also summon witnesses.
The poll panel, however, had said that the high court's order clearly meant that only oral arguments were to be heard. The March order had come on the legislators' pleas challenging their disqualification on grounds of holding offices-of-profit.
Meanwhile, acting on the high court's order to allow the AAP MLAs to file a fresh plea reto cross-examine the petitioner, the EC on Monday adjourned for August 24 its hearing on the office-of-profit case.