Gandhinagar, April 10: Union finance minister Arun Jaitley today said it should be mandatory for those filing PILs against the government's development projects to declare their source of funds.
The suggestion came a day after the Centre barred Greenpeace India from receiving foreign funds for six months and froze its bank accounts, alleging the environmental group had "prejudicially affected" the country's public and economic interests "in violation" of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.
Stating that many PILs were influenced by the source of funds, Jaitley suggested that petitioners should attach to the PILs a document declaring the origin of funding.
The minister appeared to be speaking along the lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had recently cautioned the judiciary against being influenced by perceptions driven by "five-star activists".
Speaking at a conference on regulatory framework for India's first international financial services centre, Jaitley said: "Since the debate is on, I wonder if it is not such a bad idea to make it mandatory for anybody who files PIL to disclose his source of funding.
"For contesting an election, I have to disclose my assets and income. Civil servants also have to disclose their income and assets.... Those who file PILs against development works must be more transparent than us as they call themselves crusaders. People should know from where they are getting funds to file these PILs."
Jaitley said he was raising the issue because PILs were often inspired by funding sources themselves. He questioned the intentions of "conscience crusaders" who used the PIL as a weapon to derail development projects.
An example, he said, was the Gujarat International Finance Tech City - the international financial services centre is coming up there - which had to face several legal hurdles because activists filed PILs after its foundation stone was laid in 2011.
"I believe that it should be mandatory to declare their funding sources and that document should also be attached with the PIL," Jaitley said.
Modi, addressing a joint conference of chief justices of high courts and chief ministers last Sunday, had said while the judiciary was getting powerful, it was necessary that it also became "perfect" to live up to the expectations of people.
"It is easy to deliver judgments based on the law and the Constitution. There is a need to be cautious against perception-driven verdicts," Modi had said, adding that "perceptions are often driven by five-star activists".
I would wholely agree with Mr. Arun Jaitley that those who file PILs should declare the source of their funds.
Then, shouldn't the BJP also declare where it got the Rs 10000 crores it spent on the parliamentary elections and the Rs 400 crores it spent on the Delhi elections. If the BJP wants other to declare their source of funds. shouldn't the BJP do the same?
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