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Wednesday, May 31, 2006

National

National

Constitutional procedure: Congress

Left positive about Bill passage

New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday said the return of the Office of Profit Bill by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was a Constitutional procedure and the Government would reconsider it and reply to him.

Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said: "There is nothing unconstitutional about the Bill as interpreted by the Bharatiya Janata Party." Denying that the return of the Bill was an embarrassment to the Government, he said it would reply to the President to convince him about the validity of the Bill. "The President is well within his rights in returning the Bill. He has simply exercised his rights," Mr. Singhvi said.

Mr. Kalam on Tuesday returned to Parliament the Bill seeking to exempt MPs holding offices of profit, including the post of the chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC), from disqualification under the existing law.

While refusing to give assent to the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Amendment Bill, which was passed by both Houses on May 17 during the extended budget session, the President objected to the Bill coming into force with retrospective effect.

He also wanted to know if the criteria used to identify the office of profit throughout the States and Union territories were fair and reasonable.

The Left parties said they foresaw no difficulty in the implementation of the Office of Profit Bill. Leaders of the CPI, the CPI (M) and the Forward Bloc, said the Government had the option of sending a reply to the President's queries on whether the Bill would be implemented in all the states and on the reasons why it had been passed with retrospective effect.

CPI leader in the Lok Sabha Gurudas Dasgupta said: "Even if the Bill comes back to Parliament in the monsoon session, it will be passed unanimously." Mr. Dasgupta said the Bill would be implemented across the country in all the States and that its passage was necessitated because of the ambiguity in the definition of office of profit, both in the Constitution and the law.

"The Parliament is supreme. Any intervention in its role is not appropriate," he added.

CPI (M) leader in the Lok Sabha Basudeb Acharia maintained that the President was competent and could return the Bill, but the Government could easily reply to all his queries. "I do not forsee any difficulty in the implementation of the Bill as proper procedure has been followed in its passage in Parliament."

While observing that the development was unfortunate, Forward Bloc national secretary G. Devrajan said: "The passage of the Bill was necessitated because the members of Parliament served as office bearers on various boards as elected representatives in the larger public interest." — PTI

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