In a recent session in Parliament, the Union Minister for Law & Justice declared that the government has no current intentions to introduce a law requiring judges in the higher judiciary to declare their assets. The statement was made by Arjun Ram Meghwal, the Union Law Minister, in response to an inquiry from Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha during a discussion.
MP Tankha had posed a question regarding the government’s stance on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee’s August 2023 report titled “Judicial Processes and their Reform,” which suggested that judges should be mandated to furnish property returns.
Minister Meghwal clarified that there are no plans to enact such legislation, referencing the historical context of asset declaration within the judiciary. He noted that as per decisions in Full Court Meetings of the Supreme Court dating back to 1997 and 2009, there were resolutions to uphold certain judicial standards and disclose judges’ asset statements on the Supreme Court’s website.
Further elaborating, the Minister cited a Committee of Judges formed by the Supreme Court to review the mandatory asset declaration following the recommendations from the Departmental related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievance, Law and Justice. He highlighted the significant judgment in the case of Supreme Court of India vs. Subhash Chandra Agrawal (2020), which dealt with the transparency of such declarations.
According to Minister Meghwal, the Committee reaffirmed earlier decisions that require every judge to declare their assets upon assuming office and upon any substantial acquisition to the Chief Justice of India (CJI). The Committee also recommended that the names of judges who comply with these declarations be listed on the Supreme Court’s official website—a proposal that has been implemented following approval from the CJI.
This stance reinforces the judiciary’s commitment to transparency while maintaining the autonomy of its procedures concerning asset declarations.
