Delhi High Court reserves order on PIL to declare Satyendar Jain person of 'unsound mind', disqualify him from Delhi Assembly

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday reserved its order on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition to declare Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain a person of ‘unsound mind’ and to disqualify him from the Delhi legislative assembly [Ashish Kumar Srivastava v. Govt of NCT of Delhi and Ors]..A Division Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad said it will pass appropriate orders in the matter. .The Court was dealing with a PIL filed by All India Professional Congress’ Ashish Srivastava, through advocate Rudra Vikram Singh. It demanded 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.Even after Jain told the Enforcement Directorate (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.Jain is stated to have told the 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.“It is respectfully submitted that Mr. Satyendra Jain, the Respondent No. 5 is handling many important portfolios in Govt. of NCT of Delhi and every day he has to take a lot of decisions and had to sign on many documents/orders, but as he himself declare his memory loss hence anyone can take the advantage of his illness and ultimately the voters of Delhi will suffer,” it said..Interestingly, just last month, the Delhi High Court dismissed another PIL seeking Jain’s removal from the Delhi cabinet on the grounds that he was indicted under serious charges.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.