SC judges declare assets

The Twenty-one judges of Supreme Court including Chief Justice of India (CJI) Justice K G Balakrishnan on Nov 02 have made their assets public following the order of Delhi High Court held on September 02, 2009 in which the court had declared that the office of the Chief Justice of India falls under the RTI Act and disclosure of assets of the apex court judges to him could be made public.

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In this move, the CJI and other 20 judges have declared their assets on the website of Supreme Court. The recent retired judge Justice B N Agrawal, who was retired on October 15, 2009 has also declared his asset after special request.

Justice H.S. Bedi is yet to follow the path.

All the declared assets are purely on voluntary basis because at present, there is no law governing the declaration of assets by judges.

The matter is still pending before a Single Judge Bench while the SC Judges became agreed to voluntarily declare their assets on the official website.

According the resolution of May 07, 1997, “Every Judge should make a declaration of all his/her assets in the form of real estate or investment [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 judges within a reasonable time of adoption of this Resolution and thereafter whenever any acquisition of a substantial nature is made, it shall be disclosed within a reasonable time. The declaration so made should be to the Chief Justice of the Court. The Chief Justice [should] make a similar declaration for the purpose of the record. The declaration made by the Judges or the Chief Justice, as the case may be, shall be confidential.”