Manmohan meets Kalam on office of profit issue

New Delhi, May 31: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today met President A P J Abdul Kalam and discussed the 'office-of-profit' issue in the wake of the Rashtrapati Bhawan returning to Parliament the bill on the subject for reconsideration.

''The meeting lasted 30 minutes. The Prime Minister and the President discussed the current issues of national importance,'' a Rashtrapati Bhawan communique said.

Official sources said Dr Singh's meeting with the President was not to seek the reversal of Presidential decision. He reportedly discussed different options within the ambit of the Constitution to save the government from the embarrassing situation caused by the President returning the Parliament (Disqualification of Members) Amendment Bill for reconsideration yesterday.

A final decision on the Office of Profit Bill will be taken by a meeting of the Union Cabinet later this week based on the discussion Dr Singh had with the President today.

Dr Singh reportedly explained to the President the situation that prompted the government to come out with the amendment bill seeking to exempt 56 offices of profit from the purview of disqualification from Parliament. He was also said to have explained why uniformity in the criterion for deciding offices of profit could not be ensured across all States and Union Territories.

While returning the bill, President Kalam asked Parliament to look into the legal propriety of the legislation's applicability with retrospective effect.

He said the Bill's focus should be on evolving a comprehenesive criterion which would be fair and reasonable and applied across all States and Union Territories in a clear and tansparent manner.

Under the Constitution, the government has to bring the bill afresh in Parliament for reconsideration.

According to Article 111 of the Constitution, once cleared by Parliament again, with or without amendments, the President has to give his assent to the Bill.

In all probability, the Bill will be reintroduced in the monsoon session of Parliament in July.

Indications are that the government itself would not try to resubmit the bill for the assent of the President without the Houses of Parliament considering the Presidential message. And since the bill was passed by the two Houses of Parliament and has been returned by the President to them, the constitutional requirement is categorical - that both the Houses reconsider the bill. It is for the government to decide if this is to be done in the monsoon session of Parliament or to prepone the session for the purpose.

Meanwhile, Constitutional expert Subash C Kashyap said if the bill was passed again by both the Houses of Parliament, with or without amendments, and presented to the President for his assent, he will not withold his assent.

However, despite this provision, if the President, in his wisdom, still finds the bill to be violative of the letter and spirit of the Constitution, he has the option of seeking the advice of the Supreme Court under Article 143 of the Constitution.

''After all, the President would not like to face the odium of something done under his signature to be later found to be unconstitutional. The President is motivated by the single desire of doing the right thing and upholding the Constitution,'' Mr Kashyap, a former Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha, said.

UNI

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