Delhi High Court dismisses plea to disqualify Satyendar Jain from Delhi assembly

The Delhi High Court has said that it cannot declare Delhi minister Satyendar Jain a person of unsound mind and cannot disqualify him from being a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) or the minister based on the arguments made in a public interest litigation (PIL) petition [Ashish Kumar Srivastava v Govt. of NCT of Delhi & Ors]..A Division Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad noted that it is true that cases have been registered against Jain and he is facing prosecution for various offences under Indian Penal Code (IPC), Prevention of Corruption Act as well as Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). But the fact remains that Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) is a complete code in itself which provides a mechanism in respect of investigation, inquiry and trial, the court said. “This Court, based upon the averments made in the writ petition, in exercise of jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India cannot declare the respondent No.5 as a person with unsound mind and cannot disqualify him from being a member of the Legislative Assembly or the Minister in the Government of NCT of Delhi in the facts and circumstances of the case,” the Court said..The Court was dealing with a PIL filed by All India Professional Congress’ Ashish Srivastava, through advocate Rudra Vikram Singh.The petitioner had demanded the constitution of a medical board to analyse Jain’s mental condition and a direction to the Delhi government to declare all the decisions taken by Jain after he suffered from COVID-19 as null and void.Jain is an accused in a money laundering case and is in judicial custody. He, however, continues to be a minister in the Arvind Kejriwal cabinet handling portfolios including health & family welfare, industries, power, water, urban development etc..The plea argued that as per Article 191(1)(b) of the Constitution, a person will be disqualified from being a member of legislative assembly or legislative council if he or she is of unsound mind and the same is declared by a competent court.Jain is stated to have told the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers that due to severe after-effects of COVID-19, he doesn’t remember things like his signature and the trusts or organisations of which he is a member.The petition cited this admission by Jain to contend that even after Jain told the ED officers that he lost his memory and the same was also revealed to the Rouse Avenue Court by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju, he is still continuing to be an important cabinet minister and is still enjoying the post of MLA, the plea said..Advocates Rudra Vikram Singh and Manish Kumar appeared for the petitioner. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma along with advocates Kirtiman Singh, Waize Ali Noor, Amit Gupta, Rishav Dubey, Sahaj Garg, Kunjala Bhardwaj, Madhav Bajaj and Saurabh Tripathi appeared for respondents..Interestingly, just last month, another PIL seeking Jain’s removal from the Delhi cabinet on the grounds that he was indicted under serious charges, was dismissed by the Delhi High Court.The Court had said that while it cannot direct Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to remove Jain from his cabinet, it expressed hoped that while appointing ministers, the CM will uphold the trust reposed in him by the electorate..[Read Order]