1 Aug : The BJP has made a strong demand that judges should make public their assets and liabilities and said there was no point in making such a declaration before their higher-ups.
“BJP welcomes probity in public life. But what purpose would be served if the assets and liabilities declared by judges are not made public?” BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy posed at a press briefing at New Delhi on Saturday.
He said making such details public was essential to “maintain a degree of transparency”.
“There is no point (in submitting such information to higher-ups) if such details are not made public,” he said.
The demand comes ahead of the government’s proposal to introduce in the current session of Parliament the Judges (Declaration of Assets and Liabilities) Bill, 2009.
The Bill proposes that judges of the Supreme Court will furnish details of the assets and liabilities to Chief Justice of India, while high court judges will submit the information to their respective chief justices.
BJP welcomes dropping of MCOCA charges against sadhvi Pragya
The BJP has welcomed the dropping of charges under MCOCA against Malegaon blast accused and said this had “smashed” the “fictional myth” about Hindu terror.
“We welcome the dropping of charges under MCOCA against Malegaon blast accused by the Mumbai special court. With this the diversionary and fictional myth about Hindu terror has been smashed…. It has been proven false,” BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said in New Delhi on Saturday.
He said the 11,000 page chargesheet against accused sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Colonel Srikant Purohit had failed to prove the MCOCA charges.
“The case will now be tried in an ordinary court. The MCOCA charges were dropped on two grounds. One, that the accused were not a part of any organised crime syndicate. Secondly, there was no prior chargesheet against them,” Rudy said.
As Thakur was earlier associated with the Sangh Parivar, it was alleged that Malegaon incident proved the existence of Hindu terror, however BJP leaders, including party president Rajnath Singh, had defended Thakur and accused the government of wrongly persecuting her and harassing her through a series of narco tests.