President returns Office of Profit bill

New Delhi, May 30 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam tonight returned to Parliament the Bill seeking to exempt MPs holding offices of profit, including the post of chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC), from disqualification under the existing law.

While refusing to give assent to the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Amendment Bill, which was passed by both the Houses on May 17 during the extended budget session, the President objected to the Bill coming into force with retrospective effect.

He also wanted to know if the criteria used to identify the office of profit throughout the states and Union territories were fair and reasonable.

''Is it soundness of the law in making the applicability to the amendments retrospectively?'' Dr Kalam asked.

The Presidential refusal to give assent to the bill has come as a big setback to the Congress leaders who have been pursuading their party chief Sonia Gandhi to return as NAC chairperson, a post she had quit on March 22 in the wake of the office of profit controversy.

The Bill was passed amid protests by the main Opposition BJP which had been objecting to the idea of giving retrospective effect to the amendment legislation alleging that this was aimed at saving Ms Gandhi who was acting as a "shadow Prime Minister" using this office.

The Bill, supported by a majority of the political parties, sought to exempt 56 posts from the list of offices of profit that invoked disqualification.

MORE UNI PMD/VN/SH LR KP2206