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Government retreats on judges’ assets disclosure bill

August 3rd, 2009 - 4:23 pm ICT by IANS

New Delhi, Aug 3 (IANS) The government Monday deferred the introduction of a bill on the declaration of judges’ assets after members across the spectrum said in the Rajya Sabha that it violated the Constitution and the Right to Information Act.

“In view of the sentiments expressed by the members and to build consensus on the issue, I am deferring the introduction of the bill,” Law Minister Veerappa Moily said, as member after member, including Jayanti Natarajan of the ruling Congress, objected to clause six of the Judges (Declaration of Assets and Liabilities) Bill 2009 under which the assets of judges could not be made public.

Opposing the introduction of the bill after Moily sought permission to do so, Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley (Bharatiya Janata Party) said: “Under clause six, a judge has to declare his assets to a competent authority and this cannot be made public.

“If I want to contest an election, I have to first declare my assets and these are made public. Thus, clause six 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 interpretations of the law for people seeking to hold public office and those already occupying public office,” he added.

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