New Delhi, Aug 3 - The government Monday deferred the introduction of a bill on the declaration of judges' assets, and said it would work to generate consensus on the issue following objections from Rajya Sabha members that it violated the Constitution and the Right to Information Act.

'In view of the sentiments expressed by the members and to build consensus on the issue, I am deferring the introduction of the bill,' Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily said, as member after member, including Jayanthi Natarajan of the ruling Congress, objected to Clause 6 of the Judges (Declaration of Assets and Liabilities) Bill 2009 under which the assets of judges can not be made public.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters: 'The government is not working with a closed mind. An attempt will be made to generate consensus.'

He said not much should be read into it. 'This is part of parliamentary procedure. It was a simple deferment of the introduction of the bill.'

Opposing introduction of the bill after Moily sought permission to do so, Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley (of the Bharatiya Janata Party) said: 'Under Clause 6, a judge has to declare his assets to a competent authority and this cannot be made public.

'If I want to contest an election, I have to first declare my assets and these are made public. Thus, Clause 6 seeks to give a different interpretation to Article 19 of the constitution. We can't have two interpretations of the same article.'

'We can't have dual interpretations of the law for people seeking to hold public office and those already occupying public office,' he added.

Jaitley also objected to the fact that the bill had been 'circulated among the judiciary and has been drafted on the basis of their recommendations'. Moily, however, contested this.

Noted jurist Ram Jethmalani (Nominated) termed the bill a 'conspiracy of corruption'.