NEW DELHI: The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances and Law & Justice is set to request the Election Commission to reverse its rule that makes it compulsory for the spouses of candidates to make public details of their income property etc in the light of the recent Supreme Court order declaring privacy as a fundamental right of citizens.The Parliamentary Committee is set to insist that the order drives home the point that the spouses of those who are contesting elections should be treated as individuals on their own right with right to privacy, rather than be treated as mere “attached properties” of their husbands/wives just because the latter chose to enter public life and contest elections, said sources in the panel.“The Standing Committee, while engaging the Election Commission on a wide-range of issues regarding electoral reforms, has already touched upon the issue of the nomination paper (for candidates) becoming too intrusive in seeking very personal information from the spouses of candidates.With the Supreme Court’s landmark judgement categorically declaring privacy as a fundamental right of citizens, the committee will insist the EC all the more to review, keeping in mind the SC judgement, its rules regarding questions to the candidates’ spouses in the nomination papers,” said a panel member.As per the existing format, candidates’ spouses –– along with his/her wife/ husband who is a candidate –– has to furnish along with the nomination paper ––details of all their movable and immovable assets (including inherited properties), details of their bank accounts, shares and other forms of investments/loans etc.“While it is perfectly justifiable for asking candidates to declare all details of their assets, income, liability etc, why should the spouse be subject to the same and be forced to place in public domain details of her/his income, properties, including those inherited from her parents, liabilities, investments etc,” asked a committee member.“The spouse of a candidate has his/her own individual standing and professional identity and financial independence as much as the spouses of others. As long as they are paying their taxes for their taxable income and accounting for their assets before the authorities as all citizens are required to do, they have as much rights as the spouses of other individuals to maintain privacy regarding their assets, income, investments, liabilities etc,” the source added. However, only “joint properties” (what the spouse owns along with his/her partner) should be made an exception for declaration.The Standing Committee, headed by Anand Sharma, has among others Meenakshi Lekhi, Prabhat Jha, Rajani Patel (Cong), Sukhendu S Roy (TMC), Tariq Anwar (NCP), Tiruchi Siva (DMK), D Raja & Anu Aga (nominated) as members.