Judges Must Come Clean About Assets

In public life, perception is as important as reality. Thus, it is imperative for the judiciary to be perceived to be above board

- SANJEEV NAYYAR

IN THE WAKE of cash being found at the house of a former Delhi High Court judge, the Supreme Court (SC) recently announced that all judges would declare their assets.

I visited the SC website on April 16 and found this statement, "The Full Court of the Supreme Court of India had resolved that judges should make a declaration of their assets on assuming office and whenever any acquisition of a substantial nature is made, to the Chief Justice. This also includes declaration(s) by the Chief Justice of India. Placing the declaration of assets on the Supreme Court website will be on a voluntary basis." As many as 30 judges had made their declarations.

Unlike earlier, I could not find any PDF file of the declaration on the website in the "Assets Judges" section.

This expression of intent might seem like a positive change. But is it so? Let us look at the background of asset declaration.

In 1997, a full court meeting of the SC 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 thereafter whenever any acquisition of a substantial nature is made, it shall be disclosed within a reasonable time".