With an aim to bring in more transparency and public confidence in the judiciary, 30 sitting judges of the Supreme Court have unanimously agreed to disclose their assets publicly by publishing the details on the official website.
The total sanctioned strength of apex court judges is 34, including the CJI.
Under the Lokpal Act, it is mandated that public servants - those earning a salary from public funds - must publicly declare their assets and liabilities, including those of their spouses and children.
The decision, taken at a full court meeting on April 1, is a departure from the current practice under which judges make the disclosure to the Chief Justice of India and it is not necessary to make them public unless a specific judge on a voluntary basis and this will apply to future judges as well. With the new resolution in place, public declaration of assets will no longer be a discretionary exercise.
As of now, the Supreme Court website only says that 30 judges of the Supreme Court have declared their assets. The details of the assets, however, are not available in the public domain. But soon it will be available. According to sources, the specific modalities for publishing the judges' assets declarations will be finalised in due course.
The apex court’s move comes following a row over the alleged discovery of cash from Justice Yashwant Varma’s residence in Delhi in March.
The resolution is likely to push high courts to also follow the apex court.
The move comes days after the Law Ministry in the Parliament answered questions on assets owned by judges. The ministry had said that the declaration of assets is completely on a voluntary basis in line with the Supreme Court Constitution bench judgments. However, the government had clarified that no record of the assets of judges was maintained by the Centre.
A full court resolution was passed by the Supreme Court in 1997, as per which, the Supreme Court judges were mandated to disclose their assets to the Chief Justice of India.
On August 26, 2009, the Supreme Court passed another resolution in a full court meeting that the judges would voluntarily declare assets, which would be made public.
Under the disclosure of assets, judges need to disclose their assets and liabilities along with that of their families too.
However, from 2018 onwards, the voluntary declarations of assets stopped and declarations made by former judges were also removed from the website. At present, there is a list of 30 judges posted in the section related to judges' assets on the website. It says these judges have declared their assets to the CJI.
According to official data, 49 of 763 High Court judges across India publicly declared assets. 29 of the 53 Punjab and Haryana High Court judges have declared their assets, followed by Delhi High Court, where seven of the 39 sitting judges have declared their assets.
In Madras High Court, five of the 65 sitting judges have declared their assets, followed by three of the 44 judges of the Kerala High Court, three of 12 sitting judges of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, one of 50 sitting judges of the Karnataka High Court and one of 16 sitting judges of the Chhattisgarh High Court. Judges from 18 high courts have not declared their assets.
