By Sushil Batra
New Delhi [India], April 6 (ANI): Former Aam Aadmi Party Minister Sandeep Kumar has filed a petition in the Delhi High Court for the removal of Arvind Kejriwal from holding the post of Chief Minister.
The petition claims a writ of quo-warranto against Arvind Kejriwal, alleging that he has incurred the incapacity to hold the office of the Chief Minister of Delhi after his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in Excise Policy.
The petition is scheduled to be heard on April 8, 2024, by the bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad of Delhi High Court.
The former MLA from Sultanpur Mazra stated that Arvind Kejriwal, while lodged in jail, has incurred an incapacity to carry out his constitutional obligations and functions under Articles 239AA (4), 167(b) and (c) and proviso to sub-section (4) of Section 14 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and hence he can no longer function as the Chief Minister of Delhi.
The plea further stated that the Chief Minister, while in jail, prevents the Lieutenant
Governor from exercising his Constitutional obligations and functions under article 167 (c) of the constitution which is identical to section 45 (c) of the Delhi Act, 1991 and for this
reason also, he cannot continue in office.
The petitioner, Sandeep Kumar, held portfolios as the minister of women and child development, social welfare, and SC/ST. In 2019, he was disqualified by Delhi assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goel under the anti-defection law after he supported the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the Lok Sabha elections.
In 2016, AAP suspended Sandeep Kumar after a raging controversy over an ‘objectionable CD’ that showed him in a compromising position with a woman.
Recently, the Delhi High Court refused to entertain two Public Interest Litigation (PIL)-sought directions to remove Kejriwal from post of Chief Minister. During the arguments, the bench of Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora made oral observations and stated that, at times, personal interest has to be subordinate to national interest.We do not administer the state.
Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the excise policy case and has spent 10 days in ED custody, after court direction.
Kejriwal was arrested by the central agency on charges of corruption in relation to the case. It is the first time in independent India that a serving Chief Minister has been arrested. The move came after Kejriwal skipped multiple summons by the investigation agency, nine in total, calling them “illegal.”
The case pertains to alleged irregularities and money laundering in framing and implementing the Delhi Excise Policy 2022, which was later scrapped.
While Kejriwal was not named in the FIRs registered by the ED or the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Delhi excise policy case, his name first found a mention in the ED’s chargesheet, wherein the agency claimed that he allegedly spoke to one of the main accused, Sameer Mahendru, in a video call and asked him to continue working with co-accused and AAP communications-in-charge Vijay Nair.
Nair was among the first people to be arrested by the CBI in the case, in 2022. Subsequently, former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh were arrested in connection with the case. (ANI)
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