Office of profit: The Ramkrishna Hegde case will set the precedent in AAP issue

The Election Commission of India has recommended the disqualification of 20 Aam Aadmi Party MLAs. There will be a legal challenge to the same and it would be interesting to see how the courts would deal with it.

In this context let us take a look at a similar case that had taken place in Karnataka.

When Ramakrishna Hegde was made the chairman of the Planning Commission he was also an MLA at that time. There was a huge controversy on the office of profit issue. He finally was disqualified.

Political scientist Dr Sandeep Shastri tells OneIndia that in the instant case, he feels that the ECI has made a strong point. This entire position of parliamentary secretary ought to have been redefined by the Aam Admi Party long time back. They could have ensured that they did not invite action. According to me, the AAP saw this coming and failed to act. It was up to them to ensure that the issue was sorted out when it was raised in the first place. They did nothing about it and this action was totally invited, he also said.

The ECI always goes into a lot of detail before passing any such order. Hence in my view it is a considered order and will stand the test of any legal challenge, Dr Shastri said.

President unlikely to interfere:

Senior advocate and expert on election matters, K N Phanindra says that the President normally does not interfere in such matters. There are no cases to indicate in the past that the order of the EC has been set aside by the President, he said.

He further explained that that the order won't be interfered with for a host of reasons. First and foremost, the EC passes a reasoned order. It goes into great detail and length before coming to any conclusion and hence the President will not have much to look into. It is a Constitutional obligation for the President to give his assent and hence due to a reasoned order before him, he will not interfere with it.

OneIndia News