The Indian Express: New Delhi: Saturday,
April 23, 2016.
In May 2005,
Rajya Sabha established “register of interest” for its members. In it, an MP of
the Upper House has to list all his/her financial interests in a prescribed
format. All this is done in the interest of transparency, among others, for
MPs.
Nearly 11
years on, Lok Sabha is yet to form any such register.
When asked
for details in a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by The Indian
Express, both Houses gave diametrically opposite replies.
On February
26, the Lok Sabha secretariat responded: “The matter of ‘maintenance of
register of interests of members of Lok Sabha and declaration of interests in
the House or a committee thereof’ is presently under the consideration of
Committee on Ethics. No information can be disclosed at this stage as it is
exempted.”
In contrast,
the Upper House said it has adopted Rule-293 and 294 in their Rules of
Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) in
2005. These rules say: “There shall be maintained a ‘Register of members’
interests’ in such form as may be determined by the Committee which shall be
available to members for inspection on request…The Information contained in the
Register may be given to the general public in accordance with such rules and
procedures as may be determined by the Committee from time to time.”
While the
register of interest in Rajya Sabha was established on the basis of
recommendations of a report by the ethics committee of Rajya Sabha of December
1999, and implemented through adoption of that report in May 2005, Lok Sabha is
yet to step off the block. On March 4, the Rajya Sabha secretariat said in its
RTI response: “Members are required to declare their pecuniary interests in the
prescribed format.”
On
declaration of business interests of Lok Sabha MPs, the LS secretariat said,
“The committee on ethics (15th Lok Sabha), in their second report recommended
certain rules in the matter for incorporation in the Rules of Procedure and
Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha. No proposal for incorporation of the rules in
the Rules of Procedures and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha has been
finalized.”
While the Lok
Sabha secretariat said that presently “there is no prescribed Code of Conduct
for members of Lok Sabha”, in Rajya Sabha the Code of Conduct, in force since
2005, has 14 principles. Among others, they say, “In their dealings if Members
find that there is a conflict between their personal interests and the public
trust which they hold, they should resolve such a conflict in a manner that
their private interests are subordinated to the duty of their public office.”
While both
Houses have provisions for their MPs to declare assets and liabilities since
2004, both informed in the RTI reply that there is no provision of putting
these declarations in public domain. These provisions, not applicable to
nominated members, were implemented in August 2004.
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