Supreme Court judges to disclose assets

Under mounting public pressure, the judges of the Supreme Court today decided to make public their assets, an issue that had been haunting higher judiciary for quite some time.
“A decision in principle has been taken on the issue at a meeting convened by Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan and the details of the assets to be declared by the judges would be put on the Supreme Court website,” a top apex court source said after the two-hour deliberations.
The decision comes after months of public debate over making public the details of higher judiciary, especially the apex court judges and their families, ever since the Right to Information law triggered a clamour on the issue.
The source said the decision, adopted in the form of a resolution, would be effective only after the minutes are signed by all the judges.
“Once the minutes are recorded the assets would be made public and would be posted on the Supreme Court website,” the source said.
The decision was immediately welcomed by senior advocates Soli Sorabjee and Prashant Bhushan, who has been campaigning on the subject.
Sorabjee said it was a decision in the right direction. He said it was not much about judicial corruption and that they had something to hide but it was due to some misgivings.
The issue of declaration of assets had also led to a spat with Karnataka High Court judge Justice DV Shylendra Kumar, who questioned Balakrishnan’s authority to speak on behalf of all judges. The CJI hit back saying the judge was “publicity crazy”.
A couple of days ago, the CJI, however, had maintained that judges were free to disclose their assets and nothing prevented them from doing so. Only there was a lack of consensus, which he said was being worked out.
In between, Justice MK Kannan, a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, and Justice Kumar declared their assets while Justice K Chandru of the Madras High Court expressed his inclination to do so. — PTI