Sunday 1 November 2009

Why don’t they make public?

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Bar Council of India chairman
N P Sinha said recently that judges should declare their assets voluntarily without waiting for a legislation in this regard,

“Why are the judges shy? They should lead by example.” Sinha said.

Two hundred years of British exploitation extracted all our national resources. What came later has been just more than 60 years and our greatest achievement post-independence has been our democratic system.

In a country where population is increasing at a fast pace and resources are limited, it becomes very difficult to ensure enough and fair share for everybody. Demand-supply imbalance tends to fuel corruption. In such a situation the responsibility of those whom we call public servants becomes extremely important.

It is expected on the part of those in public service that they do not compromise their responsibilities and do not fall in self-indulgence. To bring transparency in public life a bill was brought in the parliament in 2004, making it mandatory for People’s Representative to declare their assets before asking for votes. In continuation of the same spirit the government recently brought an act, for the judges to declare their assets. But the act didn’t ask for public declaration. This was something that fuelled discussions around the country with heated arguments on both the sides.

This radio package intends to present the different aspects of the same issue, because, we are a democratic country after all.

Sanjeev Srivastava

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