Prez withholds assent to Delhi Govt’s Parliamentary Secretaries Bill

13 June, New Delhi

In what turned out to a major crisis for the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi, President Pranab Mukherjee has withheld his assent to the Parliamentary Secretaries Bill, aimed at giving exemption to 21 MLAs appointed by the Arvind Kejriwal government as Parliamentary Secretaries, sources in the office of Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung said Monday.

The Bill had been brought by the AAP government in the Delhi assembly last year to avert the eventuality of disqualification of the 21 MLAs appointed as Parliamentary Secretaries.With the President withholding assent to the Bill, the future of the 21 MLAs hangs in balance.