HC rejects PIL against Lokpal provisions on assets declaration

The Delhi High Court today dismissed a PIL challenging certain provisions of the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act which make it mandatory for public servants to disclose assets of their spouses and children, saying that the authority, under the statutes, has not been set up so far.
A bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and Vipin Sanghi refused to entertain the plea of Baswa Nand, who had retired as a class II public servant after serving in the Revenue Department of Finance Ministry, and said that he has neither any "locus standi" to file the PIL nor he is "directly affected".

"We are not entertaining the petition. The petitioner is not aggrieved by any of the provisions," it said, adding that the "the Lokpal under Act has not been yet constituted".
The petitioner had opposed the Lokpal provisions contending that they were violative of Fundamental rights.
The petition, filed through advocate Kaanan Kapoor and Bhushan Kapoor, had contended that the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act of 2013 is ultra vires as well as contrary to the provisions of the RTI Act and Income Tax Act.
It had said that online publication of the finances and other assets of spouses and children of public servants amounts to violation of right to privacy.

Easy access to such information would also pose a threat to the life and liberty of the public servants, posted or employed in areas with law and order problems, as well as their family, the counsel had said.

It said if independent liabilities of the spouse and or the dependent children, which have no relation with the public servant, are disclosed on government website, they will "cause prejudice and humiliation before the public at large".
However, a similar plea, which has been filed by Vinita Singla, an employee with a private IT firm and wife of a public servant, is still pending decision in the high court.

Under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 every public servant shall make a declaration of his assets and liabilities in the manner as provided under the Act besides the assets of his spouse and his dependent children are, jointly or severally, owners or beneficiaries.