Supreme Court moots new mechanism to verify declaration of assets by MLAs, MPs

NEW DELHI: SC on Tuesday mooted a new mechanism to verify affidavits submitted to EC by candidates listing their assets and liabilities just before elections, while questioning as to why the income-tax returns of elected lawmakers and those wishing to contest for public office should remain a secret.

The court was dealing with a PIL which has sought, among other things, probes into such affidavits to find out if assets were proportionate to the known sources of income of the candidates. NGO Lok Prahari urged the court to include another column in the affidavit on the sources of income listed in the declaration. The affidavits are currently referred by EC to the CBDT for a probe. The NGO has cited figures from another watchdog, the Association of Democratic Reforms, to claim the wealth of candidates from one election to another had in some instances gone up to 1,000%.

In an affidavit submitted to the SC bench, comprising justices Jasti Chelameswar and S Abdul Nazeer, CBDT through AG KK Venugopal said the board has always undertaken the task with “much seriousness”, and rejected the court suggestion to have another mechanism instead to take its place. The court said the inquiry under the Representation of the People Act must be different than a normal probe into assets.