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Cabinet okays Office of Profit Bill

Constitutional experts say once the Bill is sent back without any changes, the President has little choice but to give his approval

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Constitutional experts say once the Bill is sent back without any changes, the President has little choice but to give his approval
 
NEW DELHI: The Office of Profit Bill will be returned to President APJ Abdul Kalam without any changes by Parliament. A decision to this affect was taken by the Union Cabinet at an hour-long meeting on Saturday. The President's message to Parliament will be taken up on Monday in the Rajya Sabha and the next day in the Lok Sabha, after which the Bill will be sent back to the Rashtrapati Bhavan for approval.
 
Mindful of the fact that it should create an impression of a conflict with the President, the government will consider his message to Parliament with utmost respect. The Law Minister will then attempt to explain the government's position on the three specific queries raised by the President, after which the Bill will be sent back to the President for his signature. According to Constitutional experts like Rajeev Dhawan, the President has little choice but to sign the Bill.
 
Constitutional experts are of the view that once the Bill is sent back without any changes, the President has little choice except, to ultimately, give his approval. Some experts argue that under the Constitution there is no time frame for him to give his approval and the President can, if he wants, emulate former President Zail Singh by delaying his approval. Zail Singh had made the Rajiv Gandhi government sweat by not signing the Postal bill for nearly a year.
 
The government's decision to return the Office of Profit Bill without any modifications is also likely to ward off the threat of action by the Election Commission against MPs who have complaints pending against them. The EC has received complaints against 8 MPs from the CPI(M) including Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, for holding an office of profit. The President's approval of the Bill would also ward off the threat to the government given the fact that several MPs supporting the UPA government have complaints pending against them. 
 
The government's decision to return the Bill is likely to be opposed by the BJP. The UPA on its part is still trying to persuade the BJP to drop its opposition to the Bill and on Sunday, defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee will call on the Leader of the Opposition LK Advani in a bid to get his party to drop its opposition to the Bill.
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