New Delhi, May 9
The UPA government will shrink the list of posts that fall under the office of profit category by amending the Prevention of Disqualification Act, 1959.
This will prevent the disqualification of a large number of MPs and MLAs, including Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who are deemed to be holding an office of profit.
This issue figured at a session-eve meeting called by the Lok Sabha Speaker today and was later discussed by the Union Cabinet tonight, which gave the go-ahead to amend the Act.
Defence Minister Pranab Mukehrjee and Law Minister H.R. Bharadwaj have been asked to consult other political parties over the next few days to finetune the list of exempted posts.
The
government’s move has the endorsement of all political parties with most of them, excluding the BJP,
wanting the amended Act to be implemented with retrospective effect.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi said the Bill was likely to come up for consideration in Parliament next week.
Although there are indications that the expanded list of exempted posts will include the chairpersonship of the National Advisory Council (NAC), there is no certainty about it.
Congress sources maintained the inclusion of NAC in the Bill will depend on party president Sonia Gandhi’s decision to head the NAC again.
As of now, it appears she is not favourably inclined to do so. It is learnt that she is also averse to the inclusion of the NAC in the exempted list.
The Congress president had resigned from the Lok Sabha and as NAC chairperson in March when the Samajwadi Party and the TDP had filed petitions with the Election Commission seeking her disqualification on the plea that the chairmanship of NAC qualified as an office of profit.
Although the government had already announced that the Bill on the office of profit will be taken up on a priority basis in the resumed Budget session of Parliament, yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling on this issue has lent further urgency to the matter.
Over 40 MPs and 200 MLAs, including several Chief Ministers, are facing disqualification for holding an office of profit.
