NEW DELHI: The Centre appears to be moving towards revoking a 65-year-old law that lays the ground for the disqualification of MPs for holding office of profit and introducing a new one in sync with current requirements.
According to sources, the Union law ministry has formulated a draft ‘Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Bill, 2024’ based on the recommendations made by the Joint Committee on Offices of Profit headed by Kalraj Mishra in the 16th Lok Sabha.
In the past, the office of profit law has run into controversies involving a conflict of interest for MPs and MLAs. A prominent case is the resignation of Sonia Gandhi as Congress MP and chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC) under the office-of-profit row in 2006.
She was accused of violating the office of profit rules by being an MP and chairperson of NAC, which was accorded a cabinet rank. In 2022, the Election Commission recommended to the Jharkhand Governor disqualification of CM Hemant Soren as an MLA as he was allegedly holding a mining licence.
However, the proposed Bill seeks to rationalise Section 3 of the existing Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959 and remove the negative list of offices provided in the schedule containing offices, the holders of which would invite disqualification.
The committee noted that “there were number of posts bearing the same name with same duties. But while some boards/corporations/bodies like fisheries boards and Haj committees have been given exemptions in some states, while similar bodies have not been exempted in other states.”
Another recommendation says members nominated to flagship schemes, such as Swachh Bharat Mission, Smart City Mission, Deen Dayal Upadhyay-Grameen Kaushalya Yojana, and other programmes should be “saved from incurring disqualification”.
The committee also proposes to remove the conflict between the existing Act and certain other statutes, which have an express provision for not to incur disqualification. The draft Bill also proposes to omit Section 4 of the existing law relating to “temporary suspension” of disqualification in certain cases, and in its place empower the Centre to amend the schedule by issuing a notification.
Seeking views of the public on the draft Bill, the ministry says the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959 was enacted to declare that certain offices of profit under the government will not disqualify the holders for being an MP. However, the Act contains both aspects of enumerating the offices, the holder of which would not invite disqualification, and those offices the holders of which would face disqualification.
Controversies in the past
Sonia Gandhi resigned as Congress MP and chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC) after an office-of-profit controversy in 2006. In 2022, the Election Commission of India recommended to the Jharkhand Governor disqualification of Chief Minister Hemant Soren as an MLA as he was allegedly holding a mining licence.