Blow to RTI: Judges assets’ bill today

In what is being termed as the first nail in the RTI (Right To Information) coffin, the government is set to bring a bill in Rajya Sabha on Monday enabling judges to keep details of their wealth out of the public realm.

In what is being termed as the first nail in the RTI (Right To Information) coffin, the government is set to bring a bill in Rajya Sabha on Monday enabling judges to keep details of their wealth out of the public realm.

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Titled “The Judges (Declaration of Assets and Liabilities) Act, 2009”, the bill will guarantee that the assets of Supreme Court and high court judges are kept confidential, except when the chief justice of India thinks otherwise.

If this bill goes through, high court and Supreme Court judges will be the only people exempted from public scrutiny of their assets, a privilege not extended even to the President and the Prime Minister. Barring judges’ assets, only strategic and security issues are outside the purview of the RTI Act.

“It is strange that the judiciary is being given this sort of exception," said Shailesh Gandhi, Central Information Commissioner, the first RTI activist appointed to the central information watchdog body.

RTI activist and Magsaysay award winner, Arvind Kejriwal, termed the proposed law as the first nail in the RTI coffin.

“What is the purpose of keeping the assets’ records in the files?” he asked.

Opposition to the bill has started picking up. Jurists, including Fali S Nariman and former law minister Shanti Bhushan, have urged MPs to oppose the bill.

The new bill, a copy of which is in possession of HT, states in clause 6 that “no judge shall be subjected to any inquiry” on the basis of their declaration.