GUWAHATI: In a first, the Supreme Court of India has made public the asset and liability declarations of its sitting judges, publishing the information on its official website on Monday, May 5.
Declarations from Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and 20 other judges have now been uploaded. These include disclosures from the three senior-most judges in line to assume the post of Chief Justice in the coming years.
According to an official statement from the Supreme Court, “Statements of assets of Judges already received are being uploaded. Statement of assets of other Judges will be uploaded as and when the current statement of assets is received.”
The decision follows a Full Court meeting on April 1, chaired by CJI Khanna, where all judges unanimously agreed to make their declarations public. The decision comes against the backdrop of controversy surrounding the alleged seizure of cash from the official premises of Justice Yashwant Varma during his tenure as a judge of the Delhi High Court.
Until now, there was no public access to these declarations, even though judges were expected to submit them to the Chief Justice annually. With this resolution, the Full Court has now made it mandatory to place these declarations on the Supreme Court’s website.