Few Delhi HC judges disclose assets, transparency declines over years

Only seven Delhi High Court judges have disclosed their assets on the official website out of a current strength of 39 judges.

Interestingly, while the website indicates that Justice Yashyant Verma, who is the second senior most judge in the Delhi High Court, has uploaded his asset declaration, the file available for viewing is a “Dummy PDF file.”

The voluntary declarations of assets in public domain followed a full court resolution of the Delhi high court on August 8, 2009 to bring in transparency in the judiciary.

Over the past six years, there has been a decline in the number of Delhi High Court judges who have disclosed their assets on the official website. In 2018, 29 judges out of a total strength of 35 judges had made such declarations.

The Delhi high court also has an archived list of 64 judges – some of whom were elevated to Supreme Court, transferred to other high courts or retired, declared their assets on the website. Some judges had already disclosed their assets as early as February 2010.

Apart from the Delhi, only six other high courts – High Court of Chhattisgarh, High Court of Himachal Pradesh, High Court of Karnataka, Madras High Court, High Court of Punjab and Haryana, and High Court of Kerala – out of 25 in the country have sitting judges declared their assets on their respective websites.

The official website of the Supreme Court shows that out of a current strength of 33 judges, 28 judges including the Chief Justice of India, Justice Sanjiv Khanna have “submitted their declarations of assets”.

The Supreme Court website, however, does not provide access to the assets and liabilities declared by its judges. On the other hand, the assets and liabilities declaration made by the high court judges on their respective official website could be viewed and even downloaded.

In August 2023, a Parliamentary Standing Committee had released a report titled ‘Judicial Processes and their Reform’, recommending the Government to bring about appropriate legislation to make it mandatory for judges of the higher judiciary (Supreme Court and High Courts) to furnish their property returns on an annual basis to the appropriate authority.

“The Supreme Court has gone to the extent of holding that the public has a right to know the assets of those standing for elections as MPs or MLAs. When so, it belies logic that Judges don’t need to disclose their assets and liabilities. Anybody holding public office and drawing a salary from the exchequer should mandatorily furnish annual returns of their property,” the Committee had said.

“Declaration of assets by the Judges of the Higher Judiciary will only bring more trust and credibility into the system,” it added.

“Service Conditions & Conduct Rules of Civil Servants stipulate mandatory filing of annual returns of assets and the same can be made applicable to judges of Supreme Court/HCs,” the committee had opined.

The committee highlighted that other Constitutional Authority like the Comptroller & Auditor General of India are uploading their latest assets declaration on the website under their Code of Ethics. The Council of Ministers also declares assets as per the Code of Conduct for Ministers issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

“For the Judges of the Supreme Court of India and High Courts, there is a need to institutionalize the mechanism for regular filing of assets and uploading them in the public domain,” the committee said.