Seven months after judges of the Bombay High Court unanimously resolved that all of them would publicly declare their assets,it is yet to be done. The HC judges have been declaring their individual assets to the Chief Justice since 1997. On September 2,2009 the High Court Registrar General had announced that the judges had,at a special full-court meeting,made the unanimous resolution to declare their assets public. Judges from the Nagpur,Aurangabad and Goa Benches of the HC,had also participated in the meeting via video-conference link. The then Registrar General A I Cheema had announced that the decision has been taken but the modalities for the disclosure will be laid down in due course. When asked,current Registrar General M N Gilani did not divulge any information on the status of the decision since it was a sensitive issue but said its up to the judges to do the same. The decision will be announced whenever it takes place,Gilani said. Bombay HC had taken the step in line with High Courts of Karnataka,Kerala,Punjab and Haryana,Himachal Pradesh and Delhi that announced the decision to declare assets. The Supreme Court as well as the HCs of Kerala,Delhi,Punjab and Haryana have already listed assets of the judges on their websites. The Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka HCs too had announced their decision to declare assets but are yet to do it. The High Courts were taking the lead provided by the Supreme Court to make public details of their assets. Supreme Court judges had unanimously made a decision last year to post details of their assets on the website of the apex court. According to former acting chief justice of the Bombay High Court V G Palshikar,declaration of assets is not the right move,as transparency is needed in the judges behaviour and the manner in which the judge delivers a judgement,not in the property he holds. Unless people believe in explicit integrity of a judge the system will not have a clean image and for that disclosure of a judges assets is not required, Palshikar said. He said when someone becomes a judge,there is total declaration of his assets to the government and if some judge acquires some property through unfair means it will never be in his own name. Those who are bad will continue to remain bad, Palshikar stated. However,former High Court judge Suresh Hosbet said declaration of assets is a good move. Its a good thing. There will be more transparency even in the matter of selection of judges to higher courts, Hosbet said. Hosbet said that in most countries,theres an appointment commission to inquire into judges wealth.
