PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 87
As I have stated my view is that in certain cases Members of Parliament would not be affected. In certain cases they might be affected. As my friend Prof. Ranga said—and I whole heartedly agree with him—this question of disqualification by reason of holding an office of profit is one of the most important matters. It has been and could be a tremendous influence for corruption and therefore we have to proceed very carefully in this matter. In England I do not know what they do but I have found that they have no general law as such. Whenever they make a law under which they create a particular office, in that very Act they provide whether the holder of that office shall be deemed to be disqualified for being a Member of Parliament, so that no general theory is there. Each case is dealt with particularly and Anson’s Vol. I gives quite a long list. There every Act is mentioned and the office it has created and whether the holder of that office under the particular Act shall continue . to be a Member of Parliament or not. I am afraid we have therefore to be very cautious.
One thing I am prepared to admit, namely, that those Members who are already holding office, which, as I said, might lead to disqualification, if they have to give up their offices immediately, administrative difficulties might be created. The work might be held up and it might be possible and even desirable to have a short measure removing the disqualification from the holders of those offices for the present, so that we would get sufficient time later on to consider what general principles we should adopt. If there is a certain amount of delay in carrying out the suggestion which I have made, we can rectify it by passing an Indemnity Act, giving it retrospective effect, so that all those who are holding offices today need not be in danger of incurring any such disqualification. I do not think that we can really rush into this matter and have a general clause exempting anybody and everybody without either proper consideration or examination. I admit that if the disqualification applied without any qualification to Members who are working on various committees, some difficulties might be created. If the House so desires I would be quite prepared to consider a small measure of one clause and bring it before the House to give it retrospective effect and also to add to it an indemnity clause,