February 17,2018:
Justice Chelameswar added in the judgement that,"It is a phenomenon inconsistent with the principle of the Rule of Law and a universally accepted Code of Conduct expected of the holder of a public office in a constitutional democracy".On Friday, Supreme Court termed possession of the disproportionate assets by MPs and MLAs “a culpable offence”
Apex Court Bench comprising of Justice J Chelameswar and Justice S Abdul Nazeer expounded that such lawmakers must be disqualified from the legislative bodies as accumulation of wealth in the hands of elected representatives beyond known sources of income “paves way for the rule of mafia substituting the rule of law”.
SC Bench further added that,“such people are enemies to all good governments” and they should be disqualified from membership of legislative bodies.
However the Apex Court directed Centre to amend the rule to make provision of disqualification on the ground of amassing wealth beyond the known sources of income.
Justice Chelameswar, who wrote the judgment for the Bench enunciated that,“If assets of a legislators or his/her associates (spouse and dependent) increase without bearing any relationship to their known sources of income, the only logical inference that can be drawn is that there is some abuse of the legislator’s constitutional office. Something which should be fundamentally unacceptable in any civilized society and antithetical to a constitutional government.
Thus the Bench then proceeded to direct Centre to put in place a permanent mechanism to keep a tab on growth of wealth of lawmakers so that appropriate action could be taken against them for possessing disproportionate assets.
SC Bench stated that undue accumulation of wealth in the hands of any individual would not be conducive to the general welfare of the society and the issue becomes more crucial if the lawmakers themselves indulged in amassing assets by misusing office. Their assets and sources of income are required to be continuously monitored to maintain the purity of the electoral process and integrity of the democratic structure of this country.
Apex Court refused to direct probe against current lawmakers who allegedly have disproportionate assets, stating that it could lead to “political witch-hunting”.
The Bench passed the order on a PIL filed by NGO Lok Prahri alleging that there had been exponential increase in the assets of 26 Lok Sabha MPs, 11 Rajya Sabha MPs and 257 MLAs, as was reflected in their election affidavits.
Read Judgment @LatestLaws.com:
Supreme Court Judgment on Disproportionate Assets of MPs and MLAs (Downloadable PDF)
Supreme Court Judgment on Disproportionate Assets of MPs and MLAs by Latest Laws Team on Scribd
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