Calcutta, May 31: Holding offices of profit might be illegal for members of Parliament, not Bengal MLAs. But the government is set to change that.

It will introduce a Bill in the next Assembly session barring MLAs from holding any office of profit.

“We already have a 1952 act on this issue, which will be amended and introduced in the Assembly,” the chief minister said this afternoon.

Government officials said they would have to see how the state is affected by the office of profit bill introduced by the UPA government at the Centre, which the President has sent back to Parliament.

“Ideally, MLAs should not hold offices of profit under the state or the central government. As for ministers, we will have to see if any of them is attached to an office of profit. Ministers can chair corporations under their department, not head a private concern,” law minister Rabilal Moitra said.

Jaya Bachchan, then a Samajwadi Party MP in Rajya Sabha, was disqualified bec- ause she was also the chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh Film Development Board.

The Supreme Court has ruled that MPs could be disqualified for holding an office of profit even if they did not receive any remuneration.

In Bengal, the CPM’s Tamalika Seth is an MLA and also the chairperson of the Haldia municipality. Her husband Lakshman Seth is in the dock for being an MP and also the chairman of the Haldia Development Authority.

CPM MLAs Nikhil Mukherjee and Rajdeo Goala, who chaired the South Bengal State Transport Corporation and the Calcutta Tramways Company, resigned before contesting the last elections.

Goala got back the post after he lost the election. Mukherjee’s return looks uncertain.

According to the West Bengal Legislature (Removal of Disqualifications) Act, 1952, MLAs cannot be disqualified unless they hold positions in a whole-time office and are remunerated by salary or by fees.

The MLAs can also hold an office in connection with the management of a property taken over by the government and that of a chairman or member of a road transport corporation or the pollution control board as long as they are not entitled to any remuneration other than the compensatory allowance, daily allowance (not exceeding the one for an MLA), conveyance allowance, house rent or travelling allowance.