27 Supreme Court judges declare assets, but no public access to details yet

A majority of the Supreme Court judges have complied with a key procedural requirement, as 27 out of 33 sitting justices have submitted their asset and liability declarations to the Chief Justice of India, as of last month.

However, according to a report by The Indian Express, while the names of these judges are available on the official Supreme Court website, the content of their declarations remains inaccessible to the public.

This development comes in the wake of a recommendation made more than a year ago by Parliament’s Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, and Law and Justice, which called for legislation mandating the public disclosure of assets and liabilities by both Supreme Court and High Court judges. The absence of transparency continues to be a point of debate in the broader push for judicial accountability.

 

Until a few months ago, asset declarations of 55 former Supreme Court judges were publicly available. However, these declarations have since been removed from the public domain, the report claimed.

Public disclosure is still voluntary

The national-daily added that on August 7, the SC’s website update had removed records of retired judges, citing an official. The sitting judges must declare their assets upon taking office, but the public disclosure of this information remains voluntary.

The list of judges who have declared their assets includes the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud. Other than the CJI, 

Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, Surya Kant, Hrishikesh Roy, Abhay S. Oka, Vikram Nath, J K Maheshwari, B V Nagarathna, MM Sundresh, Bela M Trivedi, P S Narasimha, Sudhanshu Dhulia, J B Pardiwala, Dipankar Datta, Pankaj Mithal, Sanjay Karol, Sanjay Kumar, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Manoj Misra, Aravind Kumar, KV Viswanathan, Ujjal Bhuyan, S Venkatanarayana Bhatti, Augustine George Masih, Sandeep Mehta, and Prasanna Bhalachandra Varale, have also declared their assets according to the report.

Voluntary disclosure of assets

The Supreme Court’s website states that a resolution had been passed by the Full Court, requiring judges to declare their assets when they assume office or acquire assets of a substantial nature. The declaration will be made to the Chief Justice of India, and the practice also applies to the CJI. However, public disclosure of these asset declarations is voluntary.

In September 2009, the Supreme Court had resolved that judges would declare their assets on the court's website by October 31 of that year, clarifying that the process was voluntary. Although the assets were posted online, this practice ceased after March 31, 2018.

In December 2022, BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi, then-chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law, called for mandatory disclosure of assets by judges, similar to the requirements for MPs, MLAs, and all-India service officers.

RTI application rejected

On August 28, last year, Indian Express said it had filed a Right to Information (RTI) application seeking details on judges who had not declared their assets between 2022 and 2024, along with related official correspondence. The Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of the Supreme Court responded that the requested information was exempt under the RTI Act. Following an appeal, the First Appellate Authority upheld the CPIO’s reply, deeming it ‘appropriate’ and not requiring further elaboration.