PTI
 
New Delhi, Jun 1: A P J Abdul Kalam has achieved yet another first by returning the controversial office of profit bill to both houses of Parliament under an Article of the Constitution never before invoked. 

Kalam returned the controversial Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Amendment Bill 2006 seeking to exempt 56 posts including that of Chairperson of National Advisory Council, a post held by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, by exercising his powers under Article 111, which has been invoked by him for the first time ever since the inception of the Constitution.

Article 111 states that when a Bill has been passed by Parliament, it shall be presented to the President and the President shall declare either that he assents to the Bill or that he withholds assent therefrom. It is one of the three provisions under which the President can act independently. The other two Articles relate to appointment of Prime Minister and dissolution of Parliament where he does not require the advice of the Union Cabinet.

In the mid-eighties, former Presidents Zail Singh and R Venkataraman had refused assent to bills. Singh had just referred the controversial postal bill to the then Union Cabinet. In 1991, Venkararaman had not given assent to the MP Pension Bill as per the advice of the then Prime Minister.

Kalam is the first President to visit the forward most border post, the world's highest battlefield Siachen Glacier, undertook a journey by submarine and visited almost the entire country.