Office of profit: SC issues notices to EC, Centre

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 14: The Supreme Court today issued notices to the Centre, the Election Commission (EC), the Chief Election Commissioner and the two Election Commissioners on a petition seeking to restrain them from disposing of the office of profit complaints against several MPs pending before the EC.

A Bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and BN Agrawal issued the notices on a petition by an NGO, Consumer Education Research Society. The court gave them eight weeks to file a reply.

The NGO has sought a stay on the operation and enforcement of the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 2006 and a direction to restrain the EC from disposing of complaints filed against several MPs which are pending before the EC.

Appearing for the NGO, former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee told the court that the EC will have to act on the complaints on the basis of the Act, which has exempted many offices from the purview of disqualification. However, the Constitutional validity of the Act itself had been challenged before the Supreme Court in another petition, he said.

He requested the court to direct that any decision taken by the EC on the complaints will be subject to the outcome of the court’s finding on the Act’s validity. On this, the Bench said: “Obviously, that will be so”. However, it refused to issue any direction as sought by Sorabjee.

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