Punjab amends law on 'office of profit' to accommodate MLAs
Chandigarh, June 27: To dodge the ruling of various courts on the issue of lawmakers holding an office of profit, the Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday paved the way for MLAs to hold several new categories of office of profit by approving some amendments to the Punjab State Legislature (Prevention of Disqualification) Act 1952.
The amendments will protect the MLAs from disqualification in certain additional cases of office of profit, apart from the ones included in the original Act, an official spokesperson disclosed after a Cabinet meeting here.
The move will allow legislators in Punjab to hold high offices in boards, corporations and other bodies under the state government.
The Congress party, which has been running the government in Punjab since March 2017, has 78 legislators in the 117-member Assembly. But only 18 of them, including the Chief Minister, hold ministerial berths.
This has led to a lot of discontent among Congress legislators who could not make it into the Amarinder Singh cabinet.
The amendments "aimed at addressing the complexities of modern day governance", include incorporation of a new Section 1A to provide for the definitions of "compensatory allowance", "statutory body" and "non-statutory body", the spokesperson said.
Various high courts have come down on lawmakers for holding office of profit. Twenty one lawmakers of the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi were disqualified by a court last year for this.
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K’taka HC judge whose controversial remarks triggered controversy expresses regret before open court
Bengaluru: Karnataka High Court judge, Justice V Srishananda, on Saturday expressed regret in open court after facing backlash over his controversial remarks in his recent court hearings, reported Bar and Bench.
Two purported video clips from Justice V Srishananda’s court hearing that show him making inappropriate comments went viral across social media platforms.
On Saturday, Justice Srishananda invited members of the Advocates Association, Bengaluru, and senior lawyers to his courtroom at 2:30 PM, where he read out a note expressing regret for inappropriate comments.
Quoting Advocates Association President Vivek Subba Reddy, Bar and Bench wrote, “He expressed regret for the comments and clarified that it was not his intention to offend any community or members of the Bar. He also requested the association to relay this message to all members of the Bar.”
Reddy further stated, “We also advised him to encourage young lawyers in the courtroom and refrain from making any irrelevant remarks during hearings.”
Another senior lawyer present during the session confirmed to the legal news portal that Justice Srishananda also addressed comments directed at a woman lawyer, who was seen in one of the videos being reprimanded by the judge. The judge Justice Srishananda clarified that his remarks were not intended to target her (woman lawyer) specifically, but rather pertained to the appellant she was representing. “He explained that his comment was meant to imply that the appellant seemed to know a lot about the other party,” said the lawyer.
In addition, Justice Srishananda assured those present that he would avoid making such comments in the future.
The controversy came to light on September 19, when a video clip from an August 28 Court hearing surfaced on social media, showing Justice Srishananda referring to a Muslim-majority sub-locality in Bengaluru’s Goripalya as "Pakistan." Hours later, another video from the same courtroom emerged, in which the judge was seen making a gender-insensitive remark.
Following outrage over the viral videos, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, along with Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, Surya Kant, and Hrishikesh Roy, on September 20 took a suo motu cognizance and sought a report from the Karnataka High Court Registrar General in connection with the viral video.
