12 BJD MLAs in soup for holding office-of-profit

As many as 12 MLAs of Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) are in soup after the Odisha High Court directed the governor to dispose of a plea by a petitioner seeking disqualification of the lawmakers for allegedly holding officesof-profit.

A two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice S.K. Panigrahi, while adjudicating a plea by petitioner Samarendra Beura, has asked the governor to dispose of the petition by November 8.

As per Article 191(1)(a) of the Constitution of India, a person would be disqualified as a member of the Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council if he/she holds any office of profit under the government of India or the government of any state.

To circumvent this difficulty, the state government in 2016 had enacted the Odisha Offices of Profit (Removal of Disqualifications)

Amendment Act to declare that MLAs who are appointed as chairpersons of district planning committees (DPCs), special development council and Western Odisha Development Council would not be disqualified from being the members of the legislative Assembly.

On August 9, 2029, after getting around the legal difficulty through the enactment of the Odisha Offices of Profit (Removal of Disqualifications) Amendment Act, the state government appointed 12 MLAs as chairpersons DPCs and accorded them the status of ministers of state.

The 12 MLAs who were appointed as DPC chairpersons include Anant Das, Debesh Ancharya, Byomokesh Ray, Mahidhar Rana, Pamod Kumar Mallick, Srikant Sahoo, Prashant Kumar Muduli, Rajendra Dholakia, Raghuram Padal, Prashant Kumar Jagdev, Sarada Prasad Nayak and Satyanarayan Pradhan.