Vasundhara Raje's ordinance 2nd bid to shield babus and judges

Jaipur: If Vasundhara Raje government is seen standing up with “corrupt” public servants, it shouldn’t come as a surprise because the ordinance seeking to protect civil servants from investigation or conceal their identity is not the first such attempt.

Two years ago, Rajasthan state Assembly passed the Rajasthan Vexatious Litigation (Prevention) Bill, 2015. The Act covered both civil and criminal cases in the high court and subordinate courts. 

As per the proposed law, the government would get a person declared a habitual litigator through the court and such a person would have to state all facts when filing a case. 

The court could also refuse to entertain cases filed by him or her. Parliamentary affairs minister Rajendra Singh Rathore had justified the bill saying, “These litigants persistently file baseless cases and misuse the process of law to settle personal scores.”

“Besides harassing the innocent, these also put a strain on the already overburdened judicial system.” Curiously, the state Cabinet had approved the bill a day after a petition was filed by an RTI activist against a senior bureaucrat couple (both are now retired) alleging land fraud by them

 “It was meant to protect corrupt officials while preventing whistleblowers from exposing such officers,” RTI activist Ashok Pathak lamented.