Office of profit: Delhi HC restores membership of 20 AAP MLAs, 'big win', says Kejriwal

In a major relief for Arvind Kejriwal Government, the Delhi High Court on Friday set aside the disqualification of 20 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs in the office of profit case. The matter has been transferred back to the Election Commission.

The court observed that since the AAP MLAs were not given a chance to put their case, hence the matter needs to be heard afresh by the Election Commission.

Reacting to the court's decision, Kejriwal, said, "'This is a big win for the people of Delhi."

AAP leader Somnath Bharti said, "It's the victory of people of Delhi. People should learn from this decision. The elected MLAs should be allowed to work."

The high court had on January 24 refused to stay the Centre's notification disqualifying them but had restrained the poll panel from taking any "precipitate measures" such as announcing dates for by-polls to fill the vacancies.

The EC had on January 19 recommended the disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs - 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, Anil Kumar, Som Dutt, Avtar Singh, Sukhvir Singh Dala, Manoj Kumar, Nitin Tyagi and Jarnail Singh.

(With agency inputs)