SC Judge rejects sale of state-owned assets to private sector

Hyderabaad, Mar 22 (UNI) Supreme Court Judge Justice B Sudershan Reddy today disapproved sale of State-owned assets to the private sector.

''The Government is only a trustee to protect the State-owned assets for the benefit of the community at large,'' he asserted, while inaugurating the fourth state-level conference of the Akila Bharatiya Adhivaka Parishad here.

Referring to the observations made by noted economicist Joseph Stiglitiz, he said ''whenever the Government gets less than the full value of the asset, the country is being cheated. There is a simple transfer of wealth from citizens as a whole to whoever gets the assets at a discount.

Sometimes, the wealth of the State went to individuals within the country rather than to a multinational corporation, he added.

Describing the Fundamental Rights and directive principles as ''conscience'' of the Constitution, having deep roots in the independence struggle to usher in a non-violent social revolution in the country, he said many polices and executive decisions that the State had taken and continued to take ''could not stand the scrutiny of the Constitution, whatever the effort''.

''When we admit, even indirectly, that economic disparties are increasing or that equality of opportunity could not be secured in respect of several things such as education, health, employment, this is a clear admission that the State has not fulfilled its duty as delineated in the Constituon,'' he said.

When we clearly saw that there had been concentration of wealth and means of production in a few hands or control of material resources of the community serves only the interests of some, these phenomena were not merely failure to fulfil promises, but in reality amounts to violation of the Constituion. Whatever be the reasons, violations of the Constitution could be looked upon as a mere breach of election promises, he added.

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