The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought to know the stand of the Centre referring a petition, challenging the constitutional validity of the amendment to the law on the Office of Profit, to a Constitution Bench.

A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan sought the response from the Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium during the hearing of the case when those opposing the law said the issue should be heard by a larger bench as an important question of law was involved.

The ASG, without expressing an opinion on the issue, said there was already a slew of judgments given by this court on this issue.

"It's premature to make any statement and I would put forward my stand at the appropriate time when I would start arguing the case," he replied.

Earlier, attacking the Centre for the amendment to the law, senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Trinamool Congress MP Dinesh Trivedi, contended that it was done with the sole purpose of protecting 55 persons.

"Selection of offices to be exempted was not done on the basis criteria evolved by the Joint Committee of the Parliament," Salve said.

"The government departed from the well-established constitutional convention to save 55 persons which is arbitrary," he contended.

The Bench also pointed out that in that case other similarly-placed parliamentarians would feel discriminated.

"Others might say that they are not given similar treatment," the chief justice remarked.