Legislation to Make Judges Disclose Assets to Be Tabled in Budget Session

To ensure that judges announce their assets and liabilities publically, a legislation will be introduced in the coming budget session of parliament, said Law Minister M Veerappa Moily on Friday.

“I have sent the file to the law secretary to study the draft and I expect the study to be over in next two days,” Moily told media persons in New Delhi.

Moily, however, declined to give the details of the draft and said: “The judges are going to declare the assets and liabilities. It is wrong to assume that they (judges) are against it. We are not on a confrontational line with the judiciary.”

Moily said that the draft legislation would be introduced in the budget session which is scheduled to begin on July 2.

In India, it has always been debated whether judges of the apex court, high courts and city courts should disclose their assets and liabilities.

Supreme Court judges now voluntarily file a statement about their assets and liabilities with the chief justice of India (CJI). But the CJI has so far refused to place the statements in the public domain, insisting a law be first enacted to prevent misuse of such information.