Supreme Court judges to disclose their 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 K G 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 were signed by all the judges.

The decision was immediately welcomed by senior advocates Soli Sorabjee and Prashant Bhushan, who has been campaigning on the subject. The issue of declaration of assets had also led to a spat with Karnataka High Court judge Justice D V 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.