Farcical Petitions

The Opposition is not the only one trying to get Pranab Mukherjee disqualified from the race for Presidency

THE Opposition is not the only one trying to get Pranab Mukherjee disqualified from the race for Presidency. Some maverick characters have been knocking the doors of the courts,citing weird reasons to get Mukherjee declared ineligible. One such petition in the Supreme Court argued that Mukherjee should be disqualified because his track record as Finance Minister was poor as he was unable to unearth black money abroad. The Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and H L Gokhale threw out the frivolous petition and warned the petitioner,Iniyan John,never to do it again. Some time back,the same Bench had dismissed another such petition. At that time,the petitioner wanted Mukherjee disqualified on the grounds that he was seeking the votes of anti-Congress party legislators,because of which he attracted the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The Bench had then chided the petitioner saying the court was not a theatre for your farcical plays.

Court Jest

FORMER Attorney General Soli Sorabjee has been arguing against the governments decision to seek a Presidential reference in the 2G spectrum case. The government wants the court to decide whether all natural resources,and not just spectrum,can be allocated to companies only through auction. After concluding his arguments on Wednesday,Soli Sorabjee,who is appearing on behalf of the Centre for Public Interest Litigation,is learnt to have said in jest: I dont know about 2G or 3G. I am SorabG and I am not up for auction.

Flying High

AN Income-Tax sleuth who recently conducted searches at the office and residential premises of liquor baron Ponty Chaddha has now been entrusted the job of getting troubled Air India in order. Syed Nasir Ali,an IRS officer currently serving as a director in the Civil Aviation Ministry and OSD in Air India,has been cleared by Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh to be appointed as Joint MD of Air India. The ministers decision has been sent to the Appointments Committee of Cabinet ACC for approval. In his new job,one of the assignments of Ali would be to implement the recommendations of the Justice D M Dharamadhikari Committee Report.

Preventive Measures

THE controversy over the office of profit issue against UPA Presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee raised by the P A Sangma camp was triggered off despite the best efforts of the former finance minister to prevent such exigencies. It is understood that from June 19 onwards,Mukherjee had tasked some of his aides to get written clearances of every possible place and every possible department. This included clearances from the NDMC,Parliament House,electricity and telephone departments and so on. Even a certificate to show that he did not have any dues for official use of special aircraft. He had also taken the precaution of taking legal advice that none of the organisations/institutions he was associated with constituted an office-of-profit and dispatched resignation letters to all of them,including the Indian Statistical Institute. The neat pile of clearances/resignation letters are among the papers he submitted to the Returning Officer expecting that nothing had been left unattended and no controversy would follow.