Only 13% of high court judges declare assets, Kerala leads disclosure rates

Out of 749 judges serving across 25 High Courts nationwide, only 98 have made their asset declarations publicly available on their respective High Court websites

Only 98 out of the 749 judges currently serving in 25 High Courts across the country have publicly declared their assets on the respective High Court websites, representing just 13 per cent of the total, according to a report by The Indian Express.

Notably, three High Courts account for over 80 per cent of these disclosures: the Kerala High Court leads with 37 out of 39 judges providing asset details, followed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court with 31 out of 55 judges, and the Delhi High Court with 11 out of 39 judges.

Asset declarations by judges

The asset declarations provide information on both movable and immovable properties, as well as those of their spouses and dependents. These details cover property ownership, investments such as shares, mutual funds, fixed deposits, bonds, and insurance policies, along with liabilities like bank loans. Some declarations also include ownership of jewellery.

In addition to the High Courts of Kerala, Punjab and Haryana, and Delhi, judges from the Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, and Madras High Courts have also uploaded their asset declarations. Notably, these seven High Court websites do not specify the names of judges who have not submitted their asset details, though the Delhi High Court website indicates “File not uploaded” for such cases.

Judicial asset transparency initiated

On May 7, 1997, the Supreme Court, under the leadership of then Chief Justice of India, Justice JS Verma, passed a resolution requiring judges to declare their assets, including real estate and investments, along with those of their spouses and dependents, to the Chief Justice.

On August 28, 2009, the Delhi High Court’s full Bench passed a resolution where all judges agreed to make their assets publicly accessible. Subsequently, on 8 September 2009, the Supreme Court’s full Bench resolved to voluntarily disclose the judges’ assets on the court’s website by October 31, 2009.

Following multiple RTI requests, the Supreme Court published the asset details of its judges online in November 2009, which was later followed by several High Courts. However, the Supreme Court website's asset declarations were last updated on March 31, 2018, and a few months ago, only the declarations of 55 former judges were available online, the report mentioned.