MPs may face disqualification if the law not amended
New Delhi: The Central law ministry has started a comprehensive review of the Parliament (Prevention and Disqualification) Act of 1959 to prevent from disqualification of a large number of Members of Parliament who are working for better implementation of many flagship programmes of the Union government and also appointed in the board of directors in central public undertakings.
A 12-member joint Parliamentary committee on office of profit has submitted its report on August 8 in both the houses and recommended that Law ministry should bring out an amendment of the parent Act before the Winter Session of the Parliament to make a comprehensive one in keeping with the "contemporary and responsive to the current socio-economic environment" of the country.
The committee headed by veteran BJP MP Kalraj Mishra said in its report that "presently MPs are involved in the implementation of many flagship programmes of the government like Swachha Bharat Mission, Smart city Mission, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana, etc."
It went on to caution that there might be cases where MPs responsibilities and role in the implementation of these programmes were not strictly advisory in nature.
"The committee felt that such nominations should be saved from incurring
disqualifications," it further mentioned.
The committee also found out that in contravention with the Government decision in a circular of Department of Public enterprise which bars MPs to be nominated in the board of directors of the PSU, many MPs were being nominated in the board as Directors.
The committee says that the position relating to induction of MPs in the Board of Public Sector Undertaking was clarified way back in the year 1972. The Schedule to the Act of 1959 has been amended five times post issuance of DPE guidelines dated 13th October 1972, but in none of these amendments has ever seemed to have been addressed.
The joint committee of the parliament recommended to Law ministry that they should immediately take up this issue and do appropriate amendment as early as possible. They may also take a view in consultation with the concerned authorities regarding the relevance of DPE guidelines …for appointments of MPs in the board of state PSUs. Some Government bodies are exempted in the Schedule of the Act but are in operation as different entities. Unless these are exempted MPs might face disqualifications.
The bodies are Air India and Indian airlines are merged with the National Aviation company, Bombay Dock Labour Board has been merged with Mumbai Port Trust. Similarly, Madras Dock Labour Board has been merged with Chennai port trust.
The expression "office of profit" has neither been defined in the Constitution of India nor in any statute. In 2006, the then UPA government did bring an amendment to the Act with retrospective effect by bringing 55 bodies including National Advisory Council headed by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and which created a lot of hue and cry among the political circles. But the bill was returned as the then President APJ Abdul Kalam recommending to create a definition of office of profit.
At that time, Law ministry and Attorney General of the country were not on the same page. Later, the Government gave an assurance in the floor of the house that the recommendations of the President would be looked into by a joint committee of parliament. In 2008 December, the JPC submitted their report with the suggestion to prepare a definition of office of profit.
Now, the present committee with reference to the earlier report has commented, no follow-up action has been taken up by the Law ministry in this regard.
Expressing displeasure on inordinate delay committee directs the Law ministry to take up with urgency and submit a monthly progress report to the committee.
