Assets of the Union Council of Ministers and their kin will be open for public scrutiny under the Right to Information Act, provided the Lok Sabha Speaker gives his nod first, the Central Information Commission (CIC) on Monday said.

“As per the Lok Sabha Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Rules, information held in confidence is not disclosable, except with the permission of the Speaker. The matter will be referred to Shri Somnath Chatterjee, Speaker of the Lok Sabha, for disclosure if information relates to Members of the Council of Ministers from the Lok Sabha,” Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah directed.

In case of the Rajya Sabha, the CIC said, “If there is any equivalent rule with regard to the Rajya Sabha, the same may also be exercised. If no such rules in fact exist, the matter will be referred to the third parties concerned.” The Bench gave 30 days’ time to the Upper House to draft the necessary rules for kick-starting a procedure.

The Bench dismissed the contentions of the Prime Ministers’ Office (PMO) that ministers divulged details of their assets to it in a “fiduciary” nature. “To argue a fiduciary relationship in submission of statements (on assets) to PMO, when such statements have in any case under law also to be made available at t the time of election before the Election Commission of India, is not in our view a valid argument,” Habibullah observed in his judgment.

Arguing for RTI appellant SC Agarwal, his counsel and senior Supreme Court lawyer, Kamini Jaiswal, submitted before the Bench that “it is very much in the public interest to know of the assets of the Ministers holding public office and particularly, what property they may have acquired after the declaration of their assets before the Election Commission of India”.