New Delhi: Members of Parliament seem to have got protection from the Supreme Court which has upheld the Prevention of Disqualification Amendment Act of 2006.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan said that Parliament was within its power to bring the legislation, Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Amendment Act, with retrospective effect.
The Court passed the order on a PIL filed by Gujarat based NGO, Consumer Education Research Society, challenging the controversial amendment brought in by the then United Progressive Alliance Government to the office-of-profit law by exempting certain posts from the its purview.
It said it was the prerogative of Parliament to decide which particular post could be exempted from the Office of Profit.
The act says MPs holding offices of profit cannot be disqualified from service, even if there are complaints against them. The Bill was passed under controversial circumstances in 2006.
The Government had passed the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Bill protecting about 55 MPs who held 45 different offices of profit.
The Election Commission then acted on complaints it had received from several individuals against MPs holding office-of-profit.
The MPs included Sonia Gandhi, Somnath Chatterjee, Jaya Bachchan and the EC recommended the disqualification of a number of MPs to then President APJ Abdul Kalam.
Sonia Gandhi resigned from Lok Sabha and won a fresh election in Rae Bareilly. President Kalam, unhappy with the bill referred it back to Parliament.
Comments
0 comment