Govt defers judges' assets Bill

Opposition, Congress leaders say Clause 6 of the Bill violates Constitution.

The government was today forced to defer the introduction of the judges’ assets Bill in the Rajya Sabha after the Opposition, as well as some members of the ruling Congress party, objected to the clause 6 of the Bill that entitles the judges to keep their wealth out of the public realm.

The main argument of MPs against the Bill, which was to be introduced by Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily in the House, was that while all public servants had to make their assets public, why should the judges be exempt from it?

While the proposed Bill makes it mandatory for the judges to declare their assets before a designate authority of the Supreme Court, it bars public scrutiny of the same.

Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said Clause 6 of the Bill, which barred public disclosure of the judges’ assets, violated the Constitution.

“If I want to contest elections, I have to first declare my assets and these are made public. Thus, Clause 6 seeks to give a different interpretation to Article 19 of the Constitution. We can’t have two interpretations of the same article. We can’t have dual interpretation of the law for the people seeking to hold public offices and those already occupying public office,” Jaitley added.

The BJP had earlier promised full support for the UPA government’s initiatives to address corruption and bring in accountability of the judiciary. However, Jaitley also objected to the fact that the Bill had been “circulated among the judiciary and has since been drafted on the basis of their recommendations”.

Besides the Opposition, Jayanthi Natarajan and Rajiv Shukla of the Congress also voiced their concerns on the proposed Bill on the same lines.

Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani said the Bill showed judiciary wanted a favour from the Executive. “What this Bill does is that the Judiciary is asking favour from the Executive... It destroys the ethos of democracy,” said the noted legal expert.

However, on his part, Moily tried to assure the Opposition that the Bill had the provision of an internal mechanism created by the Supreme Court to keep a tab on the assets of judges. “There is no law, whatsoever, that judges will have to declare their assets as a liability. There is an internal mechanism created by the Supreme Court in its resolution. The first resolution is on the values of the judicial system and next on the declaration of the assets. We find a lot of corruption in the judiciary… we need to deal with that.”

The Bill, which has already been introduced in the Lok Sabha, had been cleared by the Union Cabinet in July. However, it was opposed by activists, who said it went against the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

In case the Bill becomes a law, the High Court and Supreme Court judges would be the only people exempted from public scrutiny of their assets, a privilege which even the President and the Prime Minister do not enjoy.

Barring judges' assets, only strategic and security issues are outside the purview of the RTI Act.