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Indian Polity & Governance

Topic

Office of Profit

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Clause (a) of Article 102 of the Constitution of India says

a person shall be disqualified for

Election as a member of Parliament and

for being (continuing) a member of either house of
Parliament
If he holds any office of profit under the Government of
India or the Government of any State. However, other
than an office declared by Parliament by law not to
disqualify its holder.

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prevent conflict of interest between the members of

parliament and the executive. To explain, the job of the
MP is to hold the executive answerable which he can not
do if he is himself a part of the executive.
secure independence of the MPs. It is not possible if the
legislator is a member of the executive.
ensure that Parliament does not contain persons who
have received favours or benefits from the executive and
who consequently might be amenable to its influence.

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However, has been done by Parliament on a case by case

and ad hoc basis and not on the basis of any universal
definition. In fact there is neither a Constitutional nor
statutory definition of office of profit One source of
clarity on the expression are the rulings of courts.
Another source are the Election Commission rulings.

On the recommendations of the JPC, it is the Parliament

that declares whether an office is non-profit or
otherwise. Parliament may do so with retrospective
application, according to the Supreme Court verdict in
Kanta vs. Menak Chandra case 1970.

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Parliament passed the Parliament (Prevention of

Disqualification) Amendment Bill, 2006.
The primary aim of the Bill was to shield the MPs holding
offices that could be interpreted as office of profit. It did so
by declaring that these offices were not offices of profit.
The Bill allowed MPs to continue their membership in
Parliament even while holding the offices that were alleged
to be offices of profit another point is that the Bill gave
retrospective effect to the offices contained in it from 1959.
The Bill exempts 56 positions held by 40 members of
Parliament.

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