SC Full Court resolves to publish assets of judges in a step towards transparency

The decision to publish their assets has come in the wake of recent controversy regarding the finding of half-burnt cash in the residential premises of a High Court judge, Justice Yashwant Varma

All 33 serving Supreme Court judges have agreed in a Full Court meeting held on April 1 to make their assets public on the official apex court website.

The decision to publish their assets has come in the wake of recent controversy regarding the finding of half-burnt cash in the residential premises of a High Court judge, Justice Yashwant Varma. The incident had raised concerns about the lack of transparency in the higher judiciary.

The assets would be published once the modalities are finalised.

Unlike politicians and bureaucrats, judges do not have to mandatorily put their assets in the public domain.

A Full Court Resolution of May 7, 1997 headed by the then Chief Justice of India J.S. Verma had decided that judges must declare their assets to the Chief Justice of India “in the form of real estate or investments held by them or their spouses or dependents within a reasonable time of assuming office”.

The declaration should be updated within a reasonable period every time any acquisition of a substantial nature is made. The Resolution included the assets of the CJI too.

However, the assets declared by the judges would remain confidential.

Incidentally, another Resolution of the Full Court on the same day was the devising of an “in-house procedure” to take action against judges who did not follow the universally accepted values of judicial life.

In 2009, over a decade later, a Full Bench of the Court resolved to place the assets of judges on the Supreme Court website, but purely on a voluntary basis.

However, presently, the website Section marked ‘Assets of Judges’ shows only the names of 30 serving apex court judges, including Chief Justice Khanna, who have submitted their declaration of assets.

This was despite a ruling by a Single Judge of the Delhi High Court in 2009 that asset declaration by Supreme Court judges, pursuant to the 1997 Resolution, was “information” under Section 2(f) of the Right to Information Act, 2005.

The High Court had concluded that the CJI was not holding the information regarding the declarations of assets of judges in a “fiduciary capacity or relationship”.

Subsequently, in 2019, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court had itself held that the disclosure of assets of judges would “not impinge upon the personal information and right to privacy of the judges” if it served public interest. Justice Khanna, as he was then, had authored the main judgment for the Bench.

Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, as he was then, in a separate and concurring opinion, had observed that “judicial independence is not secured by the secrecy of cloistered halls”.

The decisions were based on a case filed by RTI activist Subhash Agarwal seeking details of the declaration of assets by Supreme Court judges in consonance with the 1997 Resolution.

Published - April 03, 2025 04:54 pm IST