Apex court call hits home: 3 HCs decide to make assets public

Supreme Court judges unanimously made a historic decision on Wednesday to post the details of their assets on the website of the court.

A communique from the office of the registrar-general of Delhi High Court,Rakesh Kapoor,announced on Friday that all the judges are agreeable to make their assets public,though the modalities are still to be worked out.

A resolution on the decision was passed unanimously after a meeting of the Full Court chaired by Chief Justice A P Shah. The Delhi High Courts decision is significant because it is here that the apex court is contesting a judgment by the Central Information Commission (CIC) directing SC judges to make their assets public.

The registrar-general of Kerala High Court,D Sreevallabhan,said that at a meeting of the Full Court on Friday,all judges had agreed to put up details of their assets on the court website within a month.

The strength of the Kerala High Court is 38 and now there are 33 judges,including the Chief Justice. All 33 judges have decided to declare their assets and these will be put up on the website of court, Sreevallabhan said.

The Himachal Pradesh High Court has taken a similar decision,and an official announcement is expected soon. A senior official in the Chief Justices office stressed there is consensus among the entire judicial strength in favour of making assets details public.

We are not averse to what the SC has done and other HCs may do. In fact judges are agreeable to the idea of putting the details in the public domain, the official said.

The decision to make assets public follows from a 1997 resolution of the Supreme Court followed by most high courts requiring judges to submit these details to the Chief Justice. Till now,however,the details were not made available to the public.

It is stated in the (May 7,1997) resolution that information furnished by judges is to be kept strictly confidential, the CJI said today. As far as the SC is concerned,we are strictly following it (the resolution)… The only thing is that we were not disclosing it to the public. Now,because of the changed circumstances,we will put it on the website.

Balakrishnan said it may take a months time to put up details for all judges on the website. No decision had been taken yet on the format in which assets would be declared,or on whether questions would be entertained on them,he said.

The CJI said that the SC decision to make assets public would not affect its appeal against the CIC currently before the Delhi High Court.

The CIC had ruled that whatever information is with the Chief Justice has to be with the registrar, he said. This aspect (of the CIC ruling) we have challenged,as it was not correct.

Registry many times does not know the ABC of several things which come to me. But CIC gave a finding to that effect and I had to challenge it.

Balakrishnan said the CJIs office is privy to privileged communication between various constitutional authorities,complaints against judges etc. How can all this information be disclosed (under the RTI Act)?

Several times,absolutely scandalous allegations are made against a judge and the complaint comes to me. This cant be parted with to the Registry. Even American SC is totally exempted under the American RTI law.