Office of Profit issue put to rest

The Election Commission is likely to close about 40 cases of disqualification petitions against members of Parliament including Lok Sabha Speaker [ Images ] Somnath Chatterjee [ Images ] under a new amendment that provided exemption for more posts.

The issue was discussed at a meeting of the full election commission on Friday.

It was not clear whether the petition filed recently against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [ Images ] and Finance Minister P Chidambaram [ Images ].

The two, as trustees of Rajiv Gandhi [ Images ] Foundation, were said to hold offices of profit.

Chatterjee, who is also Chairperson of the Santiniketan-Sriniketan Development Board, and Samajwadi Party MP Amar Singh [ Images ], who is the chairman of the Uttar Pradesh [ Images ] Industrial Development Council, are among the 40 MPs against whom disqualification petitions are pending on the ground they hold offices of profit.

Recently, President A P J Abdul Kalam [ Images ] gave his assent to the controversial Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Amendment Bill, 2006, a day after Parliament approved the setting up of a Joint Committee to define what constitutes such an office.

The presidential assent to the law with retrospective effect is expected to provide relief to these MPs.