NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee has rejected the Delhi government's attempt to modify a law that blocked the appointment of 21 AAP MLAs as parliamentary secretaries. That means it made the appointments first, then tried to exempt them from disbarment.AAP's Raghav Chadda however insisted that this would in no way affect the 21 MLAs. The President's rejection raises a question on the fate of these MLAs.The Delhi government had passed the amendment that exempted the post of parliamentary secretary from coming under the purview of 'office of profit'. The Office of Profit Act prevents elected officials from holding multiple offices from which they could profit financially.The AAP government's amendment to the law attempted to retrospectively exempting the office of parliamentary secretary from the 'office of profit' classification. He argued that their appointment as parliamentary secretaries was pro bono, meaning without financial advantage.The issue had been raised by a lawyer, who had approached the Election Commission seeking the disqualification of the 21 MLAs, saying their appointment as parliamentary secretaries was a violation of the Office of Profit Act.On March 13, 2015, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had passed an order appointing 21 party MLAs as parliamentary secretaries.Thereafter, the AAP government had sought an amendment to the Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) Act, 1997.

Source: Times of India June 13, 2016 15:55 UTC