Declare arrested Delhi minister as person with unsound mind says plea in HC

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New
Delhi,
Aug
10:
A
Public
Interest
Litigation
(PIL)
has
been
filed
before
the
Delhi
High
Court
seeking
to
declare
AAP
leader
Satyendar
Jain,
arrested
in
a
money
laundering
case,
a
“person
with
unsound
mind”
and
disqualify
him
as
MLA
and
minister,
news
agency
PTI
reported.

The
petition
is
listed
for
hearing
before
a
bench
of
Chief
Justice
Satish
Chandra
Sharma
and
Justice
Subramonium
Prasad
on
August
16.

Last
month,
the
high
court
dismissed
a
plea
to
suspend
Jain
from
the
Cabinet
following
his
arrest
in
the
money
laundering
case,
saying
it
is
for
the
chief
minister
to
consider
whether
a
person
with
a
criminal
background
should
be
allowed
to
continue
as
a
minister
or
not.

In
the
instant
case,
the
petitioner
—
Ashish
Kumar
Srivastava
—
claimed
in
his
plea
that
Jain
has
“himself
declared
that
he
lost
his
memory”
before
the
Enforcement
Directorate
(ED)
and
informed
the
same
to
the
trial
court
as
well.

ED
moves
court
on
lawyer’s
presence
during
Satyendra
Jain’s
interrogation

The
plea,
filed
through
lawyer
Rudra
Vikram
Singh,
stated
that
in
response
to
Jain’s
bail
application
before
the
trial
court,
the
ED
informed
that
the
AAP
leader
has
“accepted
that
he
had
lost
his
memory
due
to
severe
Covid”
and
“the
news
of
losing
the
memory
is
covered
by
all
media
sources
and
it
is
very
much
in
the
public
domain”.

“Continuing
an
unsound
person
with
so
many
important
portfolios
of
the
Government
is
cheating
the
voters
of
Delhi,
who
have
elected
a
person
with
clean
image
and
good
mental
health…
Respondent
No
5
(Jain)
is
holding
an
important
portfolio
in
Government
and
because
of
his
mental
illness/unsound
mind/memory
loss
the
public
of
the
NCT
of
Delhi
will
suffer
a
lot,”
the
petition
said.

The
petitioner
thus
asserted
that
in
light
of
of
Article
191
(1)(b)
of
the
Constitution
of
India
clearly,
which
mandates
that
an
MLA
has
to
be
disqualified
if
he
is
of
“unsound
mind
and
stands
so
declared
by
a
competent
court,
Jain
cannot
continue
holding
the
important
portfolio
of
a
Delhi
Cabinet
minister
and
enjoying
the
post
of
an
MLA.