New Delhi: The Election Commission is split on the issue of disqualifying Sonia Gandhi for receiving the Belgian award in 2006.
While, one of the commissioners has given a dissent note saying the issue needs to be looked into and the inquiry is not complete, other commissioners though felt the enquiry is complete and rejected plea to disqualify Sonia.
A petition was filed with the Election Commission seeking action against Sonia for receiving the 'Order of Leopold' from the Belgium Government, but she had clarified to the EC that she had not done anything wrong by accepting the Belgian civilian honour as it was not a violation of the Constitution.
PTI adds: Congress on Sunday welcomed the decision of the Election Commission, which by a majority opinion has rejected the demand for disqualification of Sonia Gandhi as a Member of Parliament for receiving a foreign award.
"We welcome the EC's decision. The EC decided to clear Sonia themselves. We were not approached (by the EC)," senior party leader Kapil Sibal said.
Earlier, the Commission by a 2-1 vote, overturned the incumbent Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami's view that an enquiry was necessary to go into the complaint against Gandhi receiving the 'Order of Leopold', the second highest civilian honour in Belgium, given to her during a visit to that country in November 2006.
Election Commissioners, Navin Chawla, who will succeed N Gopalaswami on Tuesday, and S Y Quraishi overturned the incumbent CEC's view, highly placed sources said on Sunday.
The Commission's view has been sent to President Pratibha Patil for her final decision. The controversy arose out of a petition from a Kerala advocate who had sought the disqualification of Gandhi for accepting the Belgian honour.
Under the conduct of business rules in the Election Commission, in case of difference of opinion among the three commissioners, the majority view will prevail. In this Belgian honour case, the view of the two Election Commissioners may prevail over the CEC's view.