Sunday, 25 August, 2002, 14:46 GMT 15:46 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2215680.stm
Once the central Cabinet sends an ordinance back to the president after consultation, he has no option but to sign it
The Indian President, APJ Abdul Kalam, has finally
signed a new ordinance on electoral reforms.
This follows the decision by Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee's cabinet on Saturday to once again ask the president to sign the ordinance into
law.
The President had earlier returned the ordinance to the central government seeking clarification on a number of points.
Mr Kalam is believed to have queried a provision which removes the need for election candidates to reveal criminal convictions.
He also wanted to know why the government dropped provisions disqualifying candidates who had faced two serious criminal charges.
After the president returned the draft ordinance to the government without signing it, Prime Minister AB Vajpayee reportedly asked the law ministry, which had drafted the ordinance, to reconsider the points raised by Dr Kalam.
The cabinet discussed the ordinance later on Saturday and reportedly decided to ask the president to sign it without either making any changes or offering any clarifications.
Limited powers
The ordinance, which becomes effective on the president's signature, will guide state legislative elections in Indian-administered Kashmir scheduled to begin in mid-September.
Elections are also expected to be held in the southern state of Gujarat over which the state's Chief Minister Narendra Modi and India's Chief Election Commissioner, JM Lyngdoh, have engaged in unusually bitter exchanges.
Mr Modi, who has been accused by observers at home and abroad of negligence and even complicity in the communal riots earlier in the year in which almost 1,000 people were killed, wants polls to be held immediately.
Mr Lyngdoh says many Muslims in Gujarat are still so afraid that they would not be able to freely exercise their franchise.
When Dr Kalam was elected president in July, observers said the iconoclastic apolitical scientist, credited with leading India's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes, could prove to be a difficult head of state for India's political elite.
However, Indian constitutional experts say while the president can return an ordinance unsigned to the government, once the central cabinet sends it back after consultation, he has no option but to sign it.
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