The Election Commission on Tuesday said it will hear the final arguments in the AAP office-of-profit case on July 23 as it underlined that the illegality of the order appointing 21 MLAs as parliamentary secretaries does not absolve the petitioners of holding an office of profit.
In its order, the EC advised the petitioners to avoid arguing on these lines and confine themselves to the narrow question of what comprises office of profit.
The EC had earlier declared the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs did hold office of profit in their capacity as parliamentary secretaries and thus were liable to be disqualified. The AAP legislators approached the High Court that asked the EC in March to hear the arguments of the respondents.
“The direction of the High Court is for this Commission to hear the arguments as to what is meant by the term office of profit and then re-examine the situation,” the EC said.