EC issues notice to Jairam over OoP

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 3 : Even as Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee criticised the Election Commission for behaving like an investigative agency with the office-of-profit petition, the Commission sent a notice to Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh on the OoP petitions pending against him.

Ignoring the Speaker’s dig at the EC for proceeding on a matter which has neither been properly defined nor debated, the Commission gave Ramesh three weeks time to reply to the notice by October 20.

Ravindra Kumar of Rashtriya Mukti Morcha had filed a petition to President APJ Abdul Kalam against Ramesh, seeking his disqualifucation as Rajya Sabha member for holding a member’s post in the once high-profile National Advisory Council. The NAC was chaired by Sonia Gnadhi who resigned from the NAC and her Lok Sabha seat on the same issue.

Sources in the EC said the Cabinet Secretariat provided the EC the additional information, such as date of his appointment to the NAC, last week. Though Ramesh’s appointment letters has been made available to the EC, the EC sent a notice as the remunaration Ramesh received as member of the NAC has not been given by the government.

Ramesh, sources said, would have to clarify these points in his reply and at the hearing called by the EC on his petition. Since, the petition against Ramesh was filed after the Parliament amended the Act and the President sent for the EC’s opinion on it, the EC officials said, the Commission is constitutionally bound to give an opinion on the matter.

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