Plea to disqualify VS dismissed

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Governor H R Bharadwaj has dismissed the petition filed by two individuals seeking the disqualification of  Opposition Leader V S Achuthanandan for holding a post which is ‘dual by nature’.The Governor’s final decision on the petition was based on a conclusive finding by the Election Commission of India that the post of  Opposition Leader did not come under the purview of the dual post, as per the provisions of Article 192, Section 1 (a) of  the Constitution.The petition, filed by P Rajan and Alex M Arayath, was forwarded by the Governor to the Election Commission and the latter gave its views on the issue on February 29, 2012.The petition was a continuation of another filed against the Government Chief Whip P C George by former MP and MLA Sebastian Paul earlier. It is understood that the Election Commission had also taken note of the fact that unlike the Chief Whip, the Opposition Leader was appointed by the Speaker and not by the government and, as such, the dual post nature was not applicable to him.To avoid an embarrassment over any ruling against the Chief Whip, the UDFGovernment had brought out an ordinance recently with retrospective effect, and had also included the post of Opposition Leader in it.