By News 18

New Delhi: In major relief for 20 MLAs of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Delhi High Court on Friday set aside the disqualification of the Delhi lawmakers in the office-of-profit case.

The judgment was delivered by a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar on the grounds that the lawmakers were not given proper hearing. The case has now been referred back to the poll panel for reconsideration.

Eight of the 20 disqualified AAP MLAs had moved the High Court on January 23 against the presidential order disqualifying them for holding office of profit as ‘parliamentary secretaries’ in the Delhi government.

A single-judge bench of the High Court on January 24 had directed the Election Commission to maintain status quo on the disqualification by withholding the announcement of bypoll dates for the Delhi Assembly seats that would have fallen vacant if the MLAs were disqualified.

MLAs were not given a chance to put their point, so now the court has given them a chance to do that. The EC will hear their plea again: Saurabh Bhardwaj, AAP on relief to AAP MLAs. #Delhi pic.twitter.com/WO7W12llyX — ANI (@ANI) March 23, 2018

After the case was transferred to a two-judge bench in January, it was heard on a day-to-day basis.

Senior advocates KV Vishwanathan and Mohan Parasaran appearing for the MLAs had challenged their disqualification on the grounds of violation of the principles of natural justice.

It was further argued that the post of parliamentary secretary could not be considered as an ‘office of profit’ as there was no element of ‘profit’ or pecuniary benefit attached to it. The post was similar to that of an intern to a minister, it was submitted.

Amit Sharma, appearing for the Election Commission, submitted before the bench that the existence of pecuniary benefit was not the only requirement to establish an office of profit. It was argued that discharging executive duties and function as parliamentary secretaries also constituted an office of profit. It was further stated that principles of natural justice were sufficiently complied with by providing the MLAs an opportunity to file their written submissions in their defence.

In March 2015, the Delhi government had appointed 21 MLAs as parliamentary secretaries. Since then, one has resigned from the assembly. The appointments were made to assist cabinet ministers and include more MLAs in governance work.