NEW DELHI, JAN 30: Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit is waiting for what could be her only chance to please and appease all her party MLAs who wanted to become ministers and missed the bus. The much-awaited constitution of boards and committees. But there is a problem: which is an office of profit (which an MLA cannot hold) and which is not? The Chief Minister has asked Chief Secretary Omesh Saigal to check and find how many slots can be spared for her unhappy MLAs.
A Bill, passed by the Delhi Assembly in Budget session of 1996, said that MLAs can chair the boards of Government. It was sent for the President’s approval by the then Delhi Lieutenant-Governor P K Dave. The President returned the Bill to the Assembly for "providing that its provisions are in conformity with the policy of the Government of India for exclusion of MPs in the boards of public enterprises…" The Bill was passed in the winter session of 1997 duly amended, disqualifying MLAs from chairmanships of boards and committees, "exceptthose which are exempted by the Assembly as not being offices of profit".
Now, Dikshit has asked the Delhi Chief Secretary Omesh Saigal to "define what are offices of profit and how many boards and committees would fall under this category". The letter was sent to the Secretariat a week ago, and the Government is waiting with bated breath for the reply which will decide the fate trouble-making MLAs and the degree of comfort the Chief Minister can enjoy in the future.
On the all-important reply, Saigal said, "We are waiting for legal opinion on the matter. If the experts say that these are office of profit then MLAs cannot be appointed as chairmen on these boards and committees."
The Bill was moved when Madan Lal Khurana was the chief minister and when the Government wanted to make the then BJP MLA from Kalkaji, Purnima Sethi, the chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women.
This provoked a debate within the Government on the basis of the Krishna Menon Committee recommendations on state undertakings,which says that no Member of Parliament would hold positions in boards.
Despite differences, the ruling BJP moved the Bill called the Delhi Member of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualifications) Bill, on April 4, 1996.
The main emphasis of the Bill was to make sure that being a MLA would not disqualify him or her from heading various boards and committees. The Bill read, "A person shall not be disqualified for being a member of the Legislative Assembly of National Capital Territory of Delhi merely by reason of the fact that he holds any of the offices specified…"
The Bill was to be applicable to most committees and boards listed and any other "office of the chairman, director or member of a statutory or non-statutory body or committee or corporation constituted by the Government of Delhi".
However, the Bill was returned to the Assembly for reconsideration by the then President of India, Shanker Dayal Sharma, and was later amended to exclude offices of profit.