Of the 14 Supreme Court judges who haven’t declared assets, two are set to become Chief Justice of India.
New Delhi: The new Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, does not own a car, flat, building, nor has a loan to his name.
Earlier this year, before he took over as CJI, Gogoi updated the declaration of his assets, originally made in 2012, to include record of the sale of Rs 65 lakh worth land in Guwahati and the one per cent tax deducted on it.
As of June 2012, Gogoi possessed some jewellery — 150 tolas since his marriage and Rs 1.6 lakh worth jewellery purchased ‘in anticipation of the marriage of his children’ — fixed deposits and mutual funds, according to the assets declared on the Supreme Court website.
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Gogoi is among 10 sitting judges of the Supreme Court, out of 24, who have voluntarily declared their assets to the public. The apex court has a sanctioned strength of 31.
The other 14 judges — including future Chief Justices U.U. Lalit and D.Y. Chandrachud — have not yet declared their assets.
Justices Rohinton Nariman, A.M. Sapre, L. Nageswara Rao, Sanjay Kishan Kaul, M.M. Shantanagoudar, S. Abdul Nazeer, Navin Sinha, Deepak Gupta, Indu Malhotra, Indira Banerjee, K.M. Joseph and Vineet Saran are the other 12.
Gogoi’s predecessor, Dipak Misra, was among 46 former judges who made their declaration of assets public.
All the 10 top court judges who have declared their assets possess some land, according to data available on the Supreme Court website. Three judges — Justices Madan Lokur, Kurian Joseph and A.K. Sikri — own cars, and all the judges have invested in some form of insurance policies, shares and other mutual funds.
The declarations provided by the judges include assets and liabilities either in their name, or that of their spouses or dependents.
Rules to declare assets
The exercise of declaring assets draws its strength from a full court resolution first taken in 1997, and then reaffirmed in 2009.
On 7 May, 1997, during a full court meeting, the apex court mandated the disclosure of judges’ assets to the Chief Justice.
In the meeting, the court resolved that every judge should make a declaration of his/her assets, real estate or investments, within a reasonable time of assuming office. In the case of sitting judges, the declaration was to be made within a reasonable time of adoption of the resolution, and thereafter whenever any acquisition of a substantial nature was made.
The Chief Justice was also mandated to make a similar declaration for the purpose of the record.
The declarations made by the judges or the Chief Justice were to be confidential.
In 2007, advocate Subhash Chandra Agrawal filed an RTI in the Supreme Court seeking details of judges who had declared their assets. The top court rejected Agrawal’s request.
The matter eventually reached the Delhi High Court, which ruled in Agrawal’s favour.
Responding to criticism at the time, the Supreme Court in another full court meeting passed a resolution to declare their assets to public.
K.G. Balakrishnan was the Chief Justice of India at the time. He was the first CJI to declare his assets.
After the full court resolution in 2009, judges of the Kerala High Court were the first to declare their assets in public. Judges of the Delhi, Bombay, Punjab and Haryana, and Madras High Courts followed soon after.
The rules for declaring assets, however, differ for the high courts and subordinate judiciary.
Currently, there are no rules that compel Supreme Court judges to declare their assets. The judges who have declared their assets to the public did so when they were elevated to the bar. This declaration was later updated as and when there was a change in their assets.
Cosmetic exercise
Speaking to the Print, a senior lawyer said the exercise is purely cosmetic since the declaration of assets is merely voluntary and not a compulsion.
“The idea behind the judges declaring their assets was to suggest that their integrity was impeachable,” he said on condition of anonymity.
He added that the declaration of assets was also to prove that their assets have not changed disproportionately, thereby giving the impression that the judges were honest.
However, the lawyer said those who had a flourishing practice before they were elevated as judges, have significantly higher assets as compared to their colleagues on the bench.
“It’s possible they do not want to flaunt their wealth,” he added.
Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan added that judges must declare their assets once they are elevated to the bench.
“All public servants must declare their assets allowing the public to scrutinise it. This also allows the public to see if the rise in assets is proportionate,” said Bhushan
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave too said it is necessary for a judge to be transparent and above suspicion.
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“For that, one of the first things that a judge does is to declare his assets at the start of his career and continues to update it from time to time. This ensures that no one can make allegations of any impropriety against the judge especially about integrity or lack of it,” said Dave.
“This course is quite simple and fair to the judge and public interest on account of the occupation of high judicial office,” added Dave.
Earlier this year, a bench led by Justice J. Chelameswar, who retired in June, delivered a verdict that mandated poll candidates contesting elections to declare their source of income along with that of their spouses and dependents. So far, candidates were merely declaring their assets at the time of filing the nomination papers.
Why it is left voluntarily .where is rule of law . If judge of Hon. Supreme court ready to declare asset how he think that they are above of all citizen .