Declaration of Assets and Liabilities by Babus -No Due Date - Act Amended

By Vijay Kumar

GOVERNMENT had notified the Public Servants (Furnishing of Information and Annual Return of Assets and Liabilities and the limits for Exemption of Assets in Filing Returns) Rules, 2014 under the Lokpal and Lokayukt as Act, 2013 on 14.07.2014.

The Government servants were required to file returns of their assets and liabilities by 15th September 2014. Obviously the babus are not ready to part with this information.

In September 2014, the Government extended the last date to 31st day of December 2014.

Come December and they extended it to 30th April 2015.

In April also babus were not ready and the government extended the last date to 15th October 2015.

On October 11th, a Sunday, the Government extended the date to 15th April 2016.

The Government had emphatically stated on 28th March 2016 that there shall be no further extension of the aforesaid last date i.e. 15.04.2016. On 11th April,the Government extended it till 31st July 2016. DDT commented then, "This is the fifth extension - and certainly not the last."

Tomorrow is the last working day before 31st July and this time there is no date. Yesterday the Lok Sabha has amended the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013. The Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh explained the position in Parliament yesterday:

Some of the provisions of this Act have created certain issues. For example, the Act requires that all public servants should file their declarations of assets including assets of their spouses and children. That is one issue which has raised considerable amount of discussion. The date for that was April, which later on extended and currently the deadline or the last date is 31st July, 2016.

I propose an amendment in Parliament today in order to substitute the provision of section 44 which precisely deals with the declaration of assets and the provision of making the assets public. I do so, so that the present or the immediate impasse which has happened with regard to the declaration of assets could be overcome and the same in relation to the public servants which include the Government officials as well as the political functionaries and the other category of NGOs could be deferred.

And the Bill was passed. So, now the babus need not file the statement maybe for another couple of years.

Please also see DDT 2815, 2702, 2585, 2505, 2504, 2433, 2405, 2826