Sikkim House to reconvene to pass the profit bills on June 19

Gangtok, Jun 15 (UNI) Sikkim Assembly would be reconvened on June 19 to pass the Office-of-Profit Bill again to get the Governor's assent.

Mr B B Gooroong, advisor to Chief Minister Pawan Chamling, said the need to reconvene the House arose after the Governor V Rama Rao returned two Bills including of Office-of-Profit bill that was passed during a two-day special session of the Assembly that ended on June 10.

The House is expected to reconsider the two Bills with certain observations and recommendations, Assembly sources said today.

The Bills- The Sikkim Legislative Assembly Member (Removal of Disqualifications) Amendment Bill, 2006 and the Sikkim State Legislator Appointment to different Authorities Bill, 2006 were passed by the House to exempt its members from disqualification for holding posts of office-of-profits.

The Sikkim State Legislators' Appointment to different Authorities Bill provided for appointment of MLAs to different bodies without disqualifying them for holding office-of-profits.

It is deemed to come into effect from May 21, 2004.

The objective of the removal of Disqualification Bill that intended to amend the Sikkim Legislative Assembly Members (Removal of Disqualification) Act, 1978 and include some more offices in the list is deemed to come into force with retrospective with effect from November 3,1977.

But Mr Rao, returned the Bills recommending among other things for reconsideration of the provision of retrospectivity incorporated in the bills.

Mr Gooroong said after the Bills were passed by the House, the Governor was bound to give his assent to the bills under Article 200 of the Constitution.

He said the decision to convene the Assembly on June 19 was taken as the government has to submit its reply to the Election Commission before June 23 on the office-of-profit issue.

The Opposition Congress, the BJP and the Sikkim Himali Rajya Parishad in separate petitions to the Governor had demanded the disqualifaction of ruling Sikkim Democratic Front MLAs for holding various offices-of-Profit. Mr Rao in turn had sought the opinion of the Election Commission. The Election Commission asked the government and the MLAs holding office-of-profit to submit their reply before June 23.

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