A judge of the Karnataka High Court, who has favoured public declaration of assets by willing judges, under the Right to Information Act, has put details of his assets and liabilities in the public domain —on a personal website.

Justice D V Shylendra Kumar has put up the details of his assets alongside his article, Judges and the Right to Information Act, which contradicted the Chief Justice of India’s observation that judges in general are opposed to being under the purview of RTI.

Following up on the article in The Indian Express last week, Justice Shylendra Kumar had on Monday placed a declaration of his assets before the Registrar General of the Karnataka High Court with instructions to make it available to the public. The Registrar General had on Tuesday said a decision on putting the asset declaration of the judge will have to be taken at a meeting of all the judges of the High Court.

On Wednesday afternoon, Justice Shylendra Kumar, who has said that he has been searching for an avenue to declare his assets, put up the details on a personal website http://sites.google.com/site/justdvskumar/asset-particulars. “Particulars of assets of Justice D V Shylendra Kumar, Judge, High Court of Karnataka is being displayed here as the Hon’ble Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court has prevented the information from being displayed on the High Court website,” states the introduction to the web document.

As per details put in the public domain by Justice Shylendra Kumar, the sum of the value of properties acquired, bank balances held and investments is Rs 42.86 lakh. A footnote in the declaration says the information “furnished may not be accurate to the pie or to the decimal, but is sufficient to serve the purpose for which it is furnished”. A credit of $15,000 from Justice Shylendra Kumar’s brother to his bank account in July 2008 and a Rs 98,750 worth purchase of shares of a company last year are among the assets declared. He has a 1996 Maruti Zen car.

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