- NET Web Desk
Manipur Governor La Ganesan on Wednesday dismissed the complaint filed by a Congress legislator D.D. Thaisii seeking disqualification of 12 MLAs in the office-of-profit issue.
The complaint was dismissed by the Governor citing that concerned legislators have not incurred disqualifications under constitutional provisions.
“The Governor Manipur received opinion of the Election Commission of India thereby holding that the 12 MLAs have not incurred disqualification under Article 191(1)(a) of Constitution of India in view of the law enacted by Legislature namely Manipur Legislature (Removal of Disqualifications) Act, 1972 in exercise of its powers conferred under Article 191(1) of Constitution of India, and the same is binding upon the Governor in terms of the aforesaid settled law of the honourable Supreme Court,” – asserted the Governor.
All the 12 MLAs were appointed as Parliamentary Secretaries by Chief Minister N Biren Singh under Manipur Parliamentary Secretary (Appointment Salary and Allowance and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2012.
However, this Act was declared as unconstitutional by the Manipur High Court (HC).
Responding to the same, Congress MLA Thaisii on October 21, 2020 submitted an application before the Governor on obtaining opinion of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in this regard.
Meanwhile, the ECI submitted its opinion to the Governor. Its worthy to note that ECI based on its opinion on Article 191(1) of the Indian Constitution, clearly asserted that a person can be disqualified as MLA “if he holds any office of profit under the Government of India or the Government of any State specified in the First Schedule, other than an office declared by the Legislature of the State by law not to disqualify its holder”.
Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) made an observation on the opinion forwarded by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on the BJP legislators from Manipur, who were facing disqualification in a 2018 ‘office of profit’ case for holding the position of parliamentary secretaries.
Based on the same, the apex court lashed out at Governor for the delay on undertaking a decision, based on opinion forwarded by the ECI.
