House tells PMO to decide on declaring assets of ministers

The Lok Sabha secretariat has refused to entertain a request from the prime minister’s office (PMO) seeking permission to disclose the assets of those ministers who are members of the House. The secretariat says the Right to Information (RTI) Act does not have provisions for giving such “clearances”.

PMO referred the application to Lok Sabha under the orders of the Central Information Commission (CIC) which was deciding on an RTI application filed by activist SC Agrawal to the office seeking details of assets and liabilities of ministers.

“PMO will refer the application with respect to those ministers who are members of Lok Sabha to speaker Meira Kumar and those who are members of Rajya Sabha to chairman Hamid Ansari for permission to disclose the information, on the receipt of which the information will be provided,” chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah has held.

The secretariat asked PMO to take a call under relevant sections of the RTI Act and the “spirit underlying” CIC’s order, but maintained that the House will provide details about ministers in their capacity as MPs.

“The RTI Act does not provide a public authority to give clearance to another for providing information being maintained by that public authority to an applicant. Under such circumstances, it is felt that the instant reference is not required to be placed before the Lok Sabha speaker,” the Lok Sabha secretariat told PMO.
The members of the House have to declare their assets and liabilities within 90 days of taking oath as MPs, it said.