EC has received petitions against 19 MPs, 59 MLAs

Chennai, Mar 29: Chief Election Commissioner B B Tandon today (Mar 29, 2006) said the Election Commission had so far received petitions against 19 MPs and 59 MLAs with regard to holding of 'offices of profit', and they were under various stages of consideration.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the President had referred petitions against 12 Lok Sabha members and seven Rajya Sabha MPs to the EC for its opinion.

Petitions against 59 MLAs of various states - 19 in Jharkand, 14 in Uttaranchal, 13 in Chhattisgarh and 12 in Himachal Pradesh and one in Uttar Pradesh had been received from State Governors, he added.

Stating that the EC was yet to give its opinion on the petition relating to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Mr Tandon said there was no specific timeframe for disposal of the petitions.

They were under various stages of consideration and the poll panel would formulate its opinion based on various Supreme Court verdicts.

Making it clear that petitions on 'offices of profit' could be referred to the EC for its opinion only by the President and Governors, he said the EC would not take cognizance of petitions sent by others.

'Under Constitutional obligation, the EC will give its opinion only to the President and not to anybody else,' he added.

Giving details of the procedure adopted by the Commission, Mr Tandon said the panel, as a first step, would see if the petitions contained adequate information and there was a prima facie case.

Copies of petitions would subsequently be sent to respondents for written comments, following which the full Election Commission would conduct a hearing. 'We receive written submissions from petitioners and respondents and then send our opinion to the President.'

UNI

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