22 March 2024 10:19 AM GMT
A PIL has been filed before the Delhi High Court seeking removal of Arvind Kejriwal from the post of Chief Minister of Delhi. Kejriwal has been arrested by Enforcement Directorate in the liquor policy case. Hearing of ED's application seeking his remand is currently underway at city's Rouse Avenue Court.
The plea has been moved by one Surjit Singh Yadav, a Delhi resident claiming to be a farmer and social worker. He says that a Chief Minister accused of a financial scandal should not be permitted to continue in public office.
Yadav further says that Kejriwal's continuation on the post will not only lead to obstruction of due process of law and disrupt the course of Justice, but also would lead to breakdown of the constitutional machinery in the State as Kejriwal does not satisfy most of the limbs of Article 163 and 164 of the Constitution of India owing to his incarceration.
"That the Respondent No.4 has virtually forfeited his office as a Chief Minister of account of being arrested and as he is in the Custody he has disabled himself from performing the duties and responsibilities of being a public servant and as such he ought not to continue as a Chief Minister," the plea says.
Notably, AAP Ministers have been making statements in the media that Kejriwal will not resign from the post and if need be, he will run the government from inside the prison.
Yadav says that a jailed CM would be incapable of transacting any business that the law enjoins upon him and if he is allowed to do so, any material, irrespective of its secretive nature, would have to be scanned thoroughly by the prison authorities before it reaches Kejriwal's hands and such an act would amount to direct breach of oath of secrecy administered to the CM under the Third Schedule of the Constitution.
Moreover, the plea says that the Transaction of Business of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Rules, 1993 empowers a CM to call tor files from any department of the Cabinet and if Kejriwal continues as CM, he would be well within his rights to demand for the investigation of files wherein he has been arraigned as an accused. "Such a situation is against the ethos of Criminal Jurisprudence."
Yadav thus prays the Court to issue a writ in the nature of Quo Warranto, calling upon Kejriwal to answer under what authority he is holding the post of CM and consequently remove him.