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Government pulls back bill on judges’ assets

The government suffered the ignominy of having to defer a bill after the opposition in the Rajya Sabha went against the proposed law that aims to put judges’ assets beyond the purview of the Right to Information Act.

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The government suffered the ignominy of having to defer a bill after the opposition in the Rajya Sabha went against the proposed law that aims to put judges’ assets beyond the purview of the Right to Information Act.

Opposition MPs and some from the Congress objected to the bill that states that the declaration of assets by Supreme Court and high court judges are not to be made public. Congress MPs Jayanti Natarajan and Rajeev Shukla argued that if politicians’ assets could be made public, so should that of judges.

Failing to muster opposition support and sensing the House’s mood, Union law minister Veerappa Moily deferred the bill’s introduction. In the 245-member Upper House, the Congress, along with its allies, has only 79 members.

Opposition to a bill on introduction is rare, a fact that prompted deputy chairman K Rahman Khan to cite an earlier ruling and seek the House’s opinion. Leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley (BJP), who described the government’s move as a poorly-conducted exercise, questioned the distribution of the bill among the judiciary before it was introduced. He said it was prompted by Moily’s urge to show his “100 days’ achievements”.

The Congress claimed that the bill had been deferred to facilitate a consensus. Party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said: “We are trying to marry the twin objectives of ensuring a disclosure as well as the need to ensure that the disclosures are not misused. We cannot allow anything that will compromise the judiciary’s independence.”

CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said the bill was violative of the principle of equality of citizens. Ram Jethmalani said it showed that the judiciary wanted a favour from the executive.

The government responded by saying that the Supreme Court has an internal mechanism to keep a tab on judges’ assets, but the uproar by the opposition forced Moily to withdraw the bill.
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