Somnath may not preside over House

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Tuesday gave ample indications that he may not preside over the House proceedings till the controversy over his holding an office of profit is resolved.
  
Chatterjee, who held an all-party meeting here on the eve of the post-recess Budget session of Parliament, remained non-committal whether he would chair the post-recess Budget session of Parliament starting on Wednesday.
  
Asked if he would chair the House, Chatterjee merely said, ''You are intelligent people. If any subject is discussed in which the Presiding Officer is interested, there are well established conventions."

 

He was not categorical in his reply when it was pointed out that some newspaper reports had said that he was reluctant to preside over the House.  
  
Chatterjee, who was also accused of holding an office of profit in the West Bengal Government, and is facing a petition for disqualification, had stayed away from the Lok Sabha when the issue of MPs holding office of profit was raised in the House. 

 

The session was suddenly adjourned on March 22.

 

A host of petitions have been pending before the Election Commission seeking disqualification of numerous MPs and MLAs on the ground of holding an office of profit.   

 

The Samajwadi Party's Jaya Bachchan was disqualified from the Rajya Sabha on the same charges for holding the office of chairperson of the UP Film Development Board.