Amid stiff resistance from the Opposition, Parliament on Monday gave its approval without any change for the controversial Office of Profit Bill. The Bill now exempts 56 posts and gives reprieve to over 40 MPs who could have faced disqualification, in a measure which was returned by President A P J Abdul Kalam for reconsideration.
At the end of an acrimonious day-long debate, the Bill was passed in Lok Sabha with 230 voting in favour and 71 against, with the government expressing readiness to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to go into the definition of Office of Profit and other suggestions.
"Shame, shame," shouted members from the BJP-led Opposition benches as leader of Opposition L K Advani issued warning that the government could suffer judicial admonishment and made a forceful appeal for reconsideration.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee, who had been accused of violating office of profit, were not present in the House when the Bill was passed, and nor was Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who is facing a disqualification petition on the issue.
Kalam, while returning the Bill on May 30 to Parliament, some 15 days after it was approved, had wanted a generic and comprehensive criteria of office of profit, and had questioned its applicability retrospectively.
Despite Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal announcing passage of the measure, the Opposition insisted on a division, which was accepted.
Soon after the Presidential message was read out to the House, several members attacked the government for trying to rescue the 40-odd members whose membership was at stake.
Mamata Banerjee, in particular, led the Opposition attack on the treasury benches by talking about 'the nexus between the Left parties and the Congress for bringing in a Bill with the sole intention of saving more than a dozen members of Parliament from West Bengal'.
Without naming the Speaker, she waved letters, which showed how he had gained from holding office of profit of an organisation in West Bengal.
Sardar Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, senior Akali leader, agreed with Yerran Naidu from Andhra Pradesh that the matter should be sent to the select committee, questioning the need to pass the bill on Monday evening itself.
Replying to the debate, Law Minister H R Bhardwaj rejected Opposition contentions that the President had been shown any discourtesy or disrespect by the government by not accepting his suggestions during the reconsideration of the measure.
"We are well within our powers to pass the bill retrospectively," Bhardwaj said emphatically, adding that 'motives' should not be attributed in the message sent by President Kalam while seeking reconsideration of the Bill.
Hailing the President as an 'elder statesman', father figure and head of State, he recalled that even the National Democratic Alliance government had not accepted return of various decisions of the Cabinet by the President.
Asking MPs not to put 'fetters' on their own feet, Bhardwaj said the power of Parliament to amend any Act with retrospective effect was without any limitations and this is 'not something unusual'.
The passage of the Bill by Parliament marks an end to a nearly four-month long political storm, which had led to the resignation of Sonia Gandhi as chairperson of National Advisory Council and from her Lok Sabha seat and her subsequent re-election from Rae Bareli.
The storm had affected almost all political parties, with MPs, Union ministers, as also MLAs including chief ministers and ministers facing disqualification petitions for allegedly holding offices of profit.
Advani said a message should not go that the Bill was being passed to 'protect' MPs. He said this was for the first time in 58 years that President had invoked Article 111 of the Constitution, which is an 'embarassment' to Parliament.
Justifying the passage of the Bill in its present form, Bhardwaj said the House was fully empowered to exempt posts from offices of profit and said it was common knowledge that all laws are subject to judicial review.
The minister recalled that in the 1950 enactment, certain offices were exempted and again in the following year several offices of profit envisaged not to disqualify officials holding the posts.
He cited that by the 42nd Amendment of Constitution the British pattern was imposed in India but with the 44th Amendment that procedure was done away with.
Making a strong case for passage of the Bill, Bhardwaj said there were enlightened members on both the treasury and opposition benches whose expertise could be availed.
He cited the case of former power minister Suresh Prabhu who headed the panel on inter-linking of rivers.
"There should be no apprehension that we are persuading you to do a wrong thing," Bhardwaj said and cited the Supreme Court judgement in the Kantha Kathuria case to drive home the point.
Advani relied on a book written by Lok Sabha Secretary General P D T Achary in his bid to turn the tables on the government. He said Achary had contended that the power of Parliament to exempt posts was not unlimited.
The BJP leader said the court when approached would also examine whether this law was approved in a 'reasonable situation' or whether it was an 'arbitrary exercise'.
Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, whose party had initiated disqualification proceedings against the Speaker and some other CPI(M) MPs, said it would be a 'historic blunder' to reject the President's message in toto and pass the bill.
Maneka Gandhi (BJP) said it was not 'morally right' to approve the Bill in the present form as it gave the impression that certain MPs were being 'protected'.
The Bill was passed by Rajya Sabha last week.
With PTI inputs
More from rediff