NEW DELHI: The 18 Congress MLAs faced with disqualification proceedings by the Election Commission of India under the "office of profit" definition filed their reply before the Commission on Wednesday stating that the offices held by them were not offices of profit and thereby proceedings against them should be terminated without any further delay.

In the common reply filed by the MLAs through their counsel who appeared before the Commission, the MLAs have contended that they did not attract the provisions under Article 191 (1) (a) of the Constitution as had been contended by the BJP MLA from Saket, Vijay Jolly.

Mr. Jolly had alleged that in order to subvert the Constitutional provisions the Delhi Government had set up a two-tier structure consisting of an apex committee at the Delhi Government level and nine District Development Committees (DDC). The nominated MLAs on such committees received salaries and allowances and enjoyed use of Government vehicles and incurred huge expenditure running into crores of rupees while holding offices of profit.

The Commission has taken into consideration the reply of the MLAs and would now look into the whole issue before passing any judgment. However, soon after the hearing before the Election Commission, Mr. Jolly said despite clear directions by the Commission he had not been provided a personal copy of the reply filed by the MLAs. Terming the action of the MLAs as a ploy aimed at buying time, Mr. Jolly said it was all part of divisionary tactics being employed to save the Sheila Dikshit Government from being reduced to a minority. He said on one side the Government had passed legislation in the Assembly terming these as offices of profit and now they content that they are not offices of profit. This was nothing but contradiction of facts and attempt to mislead the people and the Commission, he added.

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