Former Delhi CMs Sheila Dikshit and Sahib Singh Verma took opposition’s consent

NEW DELHI: There is no law to appoint parliamentary secretary but two former Delhi chief ministers — Sahib Singh Verma (BJP) and Sheila Dikshit (Congress) — and even ex-PM Rajiv Gandhi had such aides during their tenures as no one objected to the move.
However, they escaped scrutiny under the ‘office of profit’ provision and were given the benefit of doubt because of the “ terms of appointment’..Rajiv Gandhi had Oscar Fernandes (1984-85) and Ahmed Patel (1985-86) as his parliamentary secretaries.
Constitutional experts said the situation was different in the current case where as many as 21 AAP MLAs were appointed parliamentary secretaries in 2015 without taking care that the constitutional provision was not violated.
“I think the Election Commission took the decision in the present case well within the Constitution and law. I, however, wonder why did the Commission take so much time. It could have taken the decision (of disqualifying AAP MLAs) much earlier as it was a clear case of office of profit,” constitutional expert and former Lok Sabha secretary general Subhash C Kashyap told TOI.
He said two conditions were to be satisfied to term a post as ‘office of profit’. “One, if it is under a government and the other, if it draws any kind of benefit. It is not necessary that to be considered an “ office of profit” a position should necessarily yield its holder pecuniary benefit. . Even a position which vests only executive power in the occupant satisfies the condition,” Kashyap said.
But then, how did Sahib Singh Verma get Nand Kishore Garg appointed parliamentary secretary in 1996 and Sheila Dikshit get Ajay Maken appointed in 1998?
Former secretary of Delhi assembly S K Sharma told TOI that Verma and Dikshit did this after taking the opposition on board and the agreement ensured that, unlike in the case of AAP, no objection was raised.. “It was mutually agreed between ruling and opposition parties during their tenures to have parliamentary secretary of chief minister and that’s why no one objected,” Sharma, an advisor to petitioner Prashant Patel who had approached the EC for disqualification of the AAP MLAs, said.