Their lordships agree: Assets public

A senior judge who was present at the meeting today said: “The decision was taken after an unanimous view emerged among members of the bench to make the details public.” Another judge said it was decided by consensus that details of assets held by every judge of the Supreme Court would be revealed on its website.

Welcoming the decision,former CJI Justice J S Verma “congratulated” all the judges. “I am extremely happy that by taking this step,it will mean an end to the unsavoury debate engulfing the judiciary,” he told The Indian Express.

Earlier this month,the government was forced to defer introduction of a Bill in the Rajya Sabha that exempts judges from making public disclosures of income and assets. Most MPs,including some from the treasury benches,had objections to critical provisions of The Judges (Declaration of Assets and Liabilities) Bill.

The Bill seeks to make it mandatory for judges to declare their assets and liabilities to a ‘competent authority’ but says that such declaration would neither be made public,nor be questioned by any citizen,a provision the higher judiciary was seen as rooting for. This provision,contained in Clause 6 of the Bill,drew sharp criticism from the BJP and Left parties.

Last week,Karnataka High Court Justice D V Shylendra Kumar,writing in The Indian Express,recorded the first open dissent by a sitting judge against the CJI’s stand on declaration of assets,when he said “it’s a misnomer to think that the judges of the superior courts are not ready to disclose their assets.” This prompted two more HC judges to step forward with details of their assets.

CJI Balakrishnan had taken the stand that Supreme Court judges had been following the resolution passed in 1997 by Justice Verma,the then CJI,and were declaring their assets involving real estates and other investments to the CJI. All SC judges,he said,had provided details of their assets,even the additional assets after assuming office.