After cash pile row, Supreme Court judges resolve to post assets, liabilities online

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court judges led by CJI Sanjiv Khanna have unanimously decided to make public their assets and liabilities as a dormant issue about wealth of constitutional court judges was revived after the alleged discovery of a huge amount of cash at high court judge Justice Yashwant Varma's official residence on March 14, reports .

CJI Khanna mooted the proposal before the collegium comprising himself and Justices B R Gavai, Surya Kant, A S Oka and Vikram Nath and later, the issue was put forth before a full court meeting Tuesday. All judges agreed to the proposal to make public their assets and liabilities by posting it on the SC's website. The SC in a press release said 30 of the 33 SC judges, including the CJI, have declared their assets.

Judges began declaring assets in 2009 but practice petered out after 4-5 years

Two newly-appointed judges - Justices K Vinod Chandran and Joymalya Bagchi - are yet to declare their assets and liabilities to the CJI. The SC has a sanctioned strength of 34 judges but one post is vacant.

"The assets and liabilities statements of judges, which are mandatorily declared before the CJI by every judge of the SC and, thereafter, kept in sealed cover, is likely to be uploaded on the SC website by the end of this month," an SC source told TOI.

The full court of the SC in Aug 2009, during the tenure of CJI K G Balakrishnan, had decided to upload the assets and liabilities declared by judges immediately after getting appointed to the SC, on the SC website after Justice Shylendra Kumar of Karnataka HC publicly joined issue with CJI Balakrishnan for his stand that judges should not be required to disclose their assets to the public.

But the practice petered out four or five years later when a judge stirred a huge controversy by mentioning "daughters' marriage" as a liability in her declaration. Moreover, judges, who as lawyers had roaring practices prior to joining constitutional courts, were reluctant to share details of their huge assets.

In Nov 2019, a five-judge SC bench, of which Justice Khanna was a part, had ruled that the office of CJI was a public authority and amenable to RTI Act. Justice Khanna had said independence of judiciary and transparency went hand in hand. Justice N V Ramana, who became CJI in 2021, had concurred with Justice Khanna and said there should be a balance between right to information, transparency and independence of judiciary.

Declaration of assets and liabilities by judges started with a full court resolution of the SC on May 7, 1997, which read, "Resolved that every judge should make a declaration of all his/her assets in the form of real estate or investments (held by him/her in his/her own name or in the name of his/her spouse or any person dependent on him/her) within a reasonable time of assuming office and in the case of sitting judge within a reasonable time of adoption of this resolution and thereafter whenever any acquisition of substantial nature is made, it shall be disclosed within a reasonable time." But the declarations were kept confidential till 2009, when it was made public for the first time.