Press Trust of India / New Delhi Aug 24, 2009, 19:08 IST
The Supreme Court today upheld an amendment exempting some posts from the purview of the office of profit law that was enacted three years ago in the midst of a controversy in the aftermath of the disqualification of Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said that Parliament was within its power to bring the legislation, Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Amendment Act, with retrospective effect.
It said it was the prerogative of Parliament to decide which particular post could be exempted from the office of profit.
The Court passed the order on a PIL filed by Gujarat based NGO, Consumer Education Research Society, challenging the controversial amendment brought in by the UPA government to the office-of-profit law by exempting certain posts from the its purview.
At that time a controversy arose over the amendment because among the posts sought to be exempted then was the Chairpersonship of the National Advisory Council (NAC), which was then headed by Sonia Gandhi.
However, eventually Gandhi resigned as MP and the post to avoid any disqualification and got reelected from Rae Bareli constituency.
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