Who is a
Parliamentary secretary?
A Parliamentary secretary is a member of a Parliament in the Westminster system, who assists a more senior minister with his or her duties. In several countries the position has
been re-designated as assistant minister.
What happened in
Delhi?
Arvind Kejiriwal appointed 21 Parliamentary secretaries to
his cabinet, which already has 7 ministers.
What is the law?
•
As per Article 239AA of
the Constitution of India, The total number of ministers in the Council of
Ministers in a Union Territory shall not exceed ten percent of the Total number
of the members of the Legislative assembly.
•
As per Article 191 of
the Constitution of India, A person shall be disqualified for being chosen as
member of Legislative assembly or Legislative council if, inter-alia, he hold an
“Office of Profit” of the government.
•
An “Office of Profit”
is not defined in the Constitution of India. However, Judiciary has laid the
following tests to constitute an “Office of Profit”:
o
Whether the government
makes the appointment;
o
Whether the government
has the right to remove or dismiss the holder;
o
Whether the government
pays remuneration;
o
What the functions of
the holder are; and
o
Does the government
exercise any control over the performance of these functions.
How the row
originated?
On 13th March, 2015, Kejiriwal passed an order for appointing 21 Parliamentary Secretaries, who are Cabinet Ministers. To prevent their appointment becoming invalid, he sought to amend the “Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of the Disqualification) Act, 1997”. The amendment provides that the members shall be insulated from getting disqualified because of their holding of office of Parliamentary secretary on the grounds of holding an office of profit. It was forwarded by Lieutenant Governor of Delhi to the Centre, which in turn sent it to the President with its comments. The Union Home Ministry has said that Delhi cannot have more than ten percent of their total strength of the Legislative assembly, which is 70. Thus the Home Ministry has given its opinion that any appointment of more than 7 members in the cabinet is not tenable by law. The bill was challenged as unconstitutional by a Delhi lawyer Prashant Patel.
Current Status of the tussle
The president has refused to give his assent and
the issue was referred to the Election commission(EC) by the President, which
is presently hearing the arguments of the Delhi government and the petitioner
Prashant Patel. The EC is inquiring into the issue on two fronts:
1. Is
their appointment tenable in view of Article 239AA of the Constitution of
India.
2. Are
the MLA-s not disqualified in view of Article 191 of the Constitution of India.
Possible repercussion
If
proven guilty, the 21 members will cease to be MLA-s causing considerable
damage to the strength of AAP in the Legislative Assembly.
Sources:
