Will politicians follow judges in posting wealth details on website?

Dark clouds of suspicion have hung about judges for years because of their stubborn reluctance to make their assets public. It has finally been blown away by the winds of transparency generated by a full court resolution of the Supreme Court on August 26.

Many have since laid claim to this revolutionary happening, from RTI applicants to self-proclaimed judiciary watchdogs. But the credit must go to the judiciary, the judges and, of course, Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan for being able to strike a consensus on posting their wealth sheets on the SC's official website.

The seed of this revolution was planted 12 years ago on May 7, 1997, when the full court of the SC decided that all judges, including the CJI, must declare their, their spouses and dependents assets and investments. But, they also took a decision to keep these declarations "strictly confidential".

The August 26 decision has punctured the confidentiality clause. This means, every new acquisition of asset or fresh investment by a judge, spouse or dependent will have to be put in the public domain.

The insertion of the confidentiality clause was mainly because the judges had feared harassment at the hands of unscrupulous litigants filing frivolous cases relating to their wealth. Have the judges overcome this fear? Not really, says the CJI. He wants to wait and watch the public's reaction.

Has this decision rendered the Judges Assets Bill redundant? Not really. It may need some changes, especially of the provision which barred access to wealth declarations through RTI applications. A law may still be necessary since the present declarations are voluntary in nature and it is always better to make things formal rather than keep it informal.

Sadly, the decision to make public their assets will not end the debate about the integrity of judges. If a litigant loses a case before a judge who is rich because of a flourishing practice at the Bar prior to joining the Bench, then he would invariably be the target of allegations of corruption. More so, because off-the-cuff allegations in hushed voices in the corridors of courts spread thick and fast. Judges, despite their bold decision, may have to live with this for some time.

At the same time, their decision to declare every addition to their asset and each new investment has lobbed the ball firmly back to the court of politicians who had recently stalled introduction of the Judges Assets Bill in Parliament.

The politicians declare their assets on affidavits only prior to contesting elections. Will they follow the judges and post on websites their assets and investments and update it with every new acquisition and money transfer?

At the time of elections, we come across affidavits telling how their riches have swelled dramatically in the last five years. During the last general elections, we saw how some managed to increase their wealth from lakhs to crores and from crores to hundreds of crores of rupees.

Will they explain the unusual rate of growth of their wealth? Revelations about the mean and modes to multiply wealth could provide ideas to a large chunk of citizens, who have been struggling for years to cross the poverty line. After all, politicians are the leaders of the masses who should voluntarily take the lead to remove all misgivings of the citizens about them.