EC rejects majority of office of profit petitions

After it used the office of profit rules for the first time to disqualify actress-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan 12 years ago, the Election Commission has received a number of petitions against lawmakers but most of these were rejected.

As latest as in October 2017, President Ram Nath Kovind rejected a petition demanding the disqualification of BJP MP from Madhya Pradesh Riti Pathak on the ground that holding the post of Zila Parishad president while contesting Parliament elections was not against rules.

From former Congress president Sonia Gandhi to NCP chief Sharad Pawar, several leaders have faced office of profit cases. These include Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, industrialist Anil Ambani and CPI(M) MP Mohd Salim.

While Gandhi and Ambani resigned from the post before the EC took a decision on complaints, those against Pawar and Patnaik were rejected. Gandhi resigned from Lok Sabha in 2006 while the EC was considering a petition against her arguing that the Chairpersonship of National Advisory Council (NAC) she was holding was office of profit.

The EC also rejected the petition against Pawar, finding no merit in the complaint about his presidentship in Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI). However, luck was not on the side of Bachchan, currently a Rajya Sabha MP, who lost her seat after the EC held that the post of Chairperson of Uttar Pradesh Film Development Corporation, which she was holding, was an office of profit.

Union Tourism Minister K Alphonse had also survived such a petition in 2006 when he was an MLA in Kerala after the EC rejected contentions that he did not resign from the IAS as per procedure.

If the AAP MLAs now find themselves on the wrong side of the law, previous complaints by BJP's Vijay Jolly against Congress 19 MLAs during Sheila Dikshit regime were rejected after finding no merit in the petition. Former Delhi MP and veteran BJP leader V K Malhotra had also faced an office of profit petition but that too was rejected.

According to Article 102 (1)(a), a person shall be disqualified as MP for holding any office of profit under the government of India or the government of any state, other than an office declared by Parliament by law not to disqualify its holder. Article 191 (1) (a) has a similar provision for the members of state assemblies.