Under pressure from within and outside the judiciary to declare their assets and wealth, judges of the Supreme Court on Wednesday took a historic step by agreeing to make these details public via declarations on the court's website.

This comes two days after Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan said that in the absence of a law to make public the disclosure of assets, a consensus had to be developed among judges in this regard.

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.

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