National Herald: New Delhi: Tuesday, July 03, 2018.
Almost a
decade after the Supreme Court passed a resolution to make public the details
of assets owned by the apex court judges, only half of the sitting judges have
disclosed their assets and investments on the top court's website.
Of the 23
sitting judges in the Supreme Court, only 12 have so far disclosed their assets
on the apex court website.
Chief Justice
Dipak Misra and the next four senior-most judges, Justices Ranjan Gogoi, M B
Lokur, Kurian Joseph and A K Sikri are among those who have declared their
assets.
Justices S A
Bobde, N V Ramana, Arun Mishra, A K Goel, R Banumathi, A M Khanwilkar and Ashok
Bhushan have also disclosed their assets and liabilities along with that of
their families.
In 2007, an
RTI activist had approached the Delhi High Court seeking disclosure of assets
by judges under the Right to Information (RTI) Act which was contested by the
apex court registry. The high court had ruled in favour of the petitioner
The apex
court website does not have the names of Justices R F Nariman, A M Sapre, U U
Lalit, D Y Chandrachud, L Nageswara Rao, Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Mohan M
Shantanagoudar, S Abdul Nazeer, Navin Sinha, Deepak Gupta and Indu Malhotra in
the list of those who have disclosed their assets, liabilities and investments.
The total
sanctioned strength of apex court judges is 31, including the CJI.
The assets of
Chief Justice Misra, as per the website, was last declared on May 1, 2012. He
was elevated as a judge of the apex court on October 10, 2011.The declarations
state that the CJI has a residential flat at Supreme Enclave in East Delhi
which he acquired in 2003 and a house in Cuttack. He has also declared that he
has a fixed deposit of Rs 7.4 lakh, two gold rings and one gold chain.
Justice Misra
has also declared that he has a loan of over 33 lakh from various banks.
Justice
Gogoi, as per the website, had on June 6 updated his assets recording the sale
of land held by him in Guwahati for Rs 65 lakh, even the tax deducted at
source, as well as the transfer of ancestral land gifted to him and his spouse
by his mother.
Justice
Lokur, who has declared his assets on the website on July 20, 2012, disclosed
that he owns a flat in Vasant Kunj in New Delhi and had booked another flat
with Jaypee Greens in Noida.
Justice
Joseph, who was appointed as apex court judge on March 8, 2013, owns six pieces
of land in Kerala, some of which are jointly owned by his wife and son.
Justice Sikri
owns a single-storeyed house in Greater Noida while his wife and son jointly
own a property in Delhi's posh Hauz Khas locality.
The website
details also show that Justices Misra, Gogoi, Sikri, Bobde, Ramana, Mishra,
Goel, Banumathi, Khanwilkar and Bhushan do not own a car, while Justice Lokur
owns a Maruti Swift and Justice Joseph a second-hand Maruti Esteem.
The dates of
declaration of assets by some of the judges was not mentioned clearly. Justices
Joseph, Ramana, Banumathi, Khanwilkar and Bhushan had declared the assets on
June 10, 2015, March 31, 2018, November 4, 2014, July 31, 2017 and October 9,
2017 respectively.
A full court
resolution was passed by the Supreme Court in 1997, as per which, the Supreme
Court judges were mandated to disclose their assets to the Chief Justice of
India.“Resolved further that every judge should make a declaration of all
his/her assets in the form of real estate or investments (held by him/her in
his/her own name or in the name of his/her spouse or any person dependent on
him/her) within a reasonable time of assuming office and in the case of sitting
judges within a reasonable time of adoption of this resolution and thereafter
whenever any acquisition of a substantial nature is made, it shall be disclosed
within a reasonable time.
"The
declaration so made should be to the Chief Justice of the court. The Chief
Justice should make a similar declaration for the purpose of the record. The
declaration made by the judges or the Chief Justice, as the case may be, shall
be confidential,” the 1997 resolution reads.
Thereafter,
in 2007, an RTI activist had approached the Delhi High Court seeking disclosure
of assets by judges under the Right to Information (RTI) Act which was
contested by the apex court registry. The high court had ruled in favour of the
petitioner.On August 26, 2009, the Supreme Court had passed another resolution
in a full court meeting that the judges would voluntarily declare assets, which
would be made public.
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