No Plan To Enact Law Mandating Judges In Higher Judiciary To Declare Their Assets : Union Law Minister

Yesterday, the Union Minister of Law & Justice in the Parliament informed that the Union Government is not contemplating enacting a law mandating the Judges of the higher judiciary to declare their assets/property returns.

The Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal answered an unstarred question raised by Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha i.e., “whether Government is contemplating to enact a law mandating judges of the higher judiciary to furnish their property returns as recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee in its report titled 'Judicial Processes and their Reform' of August, 2023.”

The Law Minister answered negatively, however, he gave reference to the previous Full Court Meetings of the Supreme Court held in May 1997 (where the Court had laid down certain judicial standards which are to be followed by the Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts), and August 2009 where the Court decided to disclose the statement of assets submitted by the Judges based on Resolution on the Supreme Court's website.

Further, the Union Minister stated that “the Supreme Court of India constituted a Committee of Judges of the Supreme Court to examine the issue of mandatory declaration of assets by the Judges of the Supreme Court of India on the recommendations of the Departmental related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievance, Law and Justice. The Committee observed that the issue pertaining to declaration of assets by the Judges of the higher judiciary and furnishing of such information under the Right to Information Act, 2005..”

He added that in the landmark ruling of the Supreme Court of India vs. Subhash Chandra Agrawal (2020), the Court had considered the recommendations of the Committee of Judges on the issue of disclosing Judges' assets on the Court's website.

“The procedure adopted and followed in terms of the decisions of the Full Court are in conformity with the aforesaid decision. The Committee reiterated the earlier decision of the Full Court of the Supreme Court that every Judge should make a declaration of his/her assets on assuming office and also whenever any acquisition of a substantial nature is made to the Chief Justice. This also includes the declaration of the CJI. The Committee proposed that the official website of the Supreme Court should display the name of the Judges, who have made declaration of assets to the Chief Justice. The said proposal has been approved by the CJI and accordingly, the name of the Judges have been displayed on the official website of the Supreme Court.”, the Minister replied.