Only 12% of High Court judges declare assets

A view of Delhi High Court, in New Delhi.
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

Among the 769 judges currently serving in the 25 High Courts of India, only 95 — or a mere 12.35% — have chosen to disclose their assets and liabilities on their official websites.

The recent incident involving Justice Yashwant Varma has intensified discussions about transparency within India’s judiciary. On March 14, a fire broke out in the storeroom of Justice Varma’s official residence in Delhi. During the efforts to put it out, rescue personnel reportedly discovered partially burnt currency notes among the debris.

This controversy has brought renewed attention to the broader issue of asset disclosure among judges in India’s higher judiciary.

In response to the situation, all 33 serving Supreme Court judges agreed in a Full Court meeting on April 1 to make their asset declarations public on the official apex court website.

Currently, amongst the six High Courts where judges have declared their assets, the Kerala High Court leads with 41 of its 44 judges having completed the disclosure, accounting for 93.18%. The Himachal Pradesh High Court follows closely, with 11 out of 12 judges (91.66%) having done the same.

In contrast, some courts report significantly lower disclosure rates. In the Chhattisgarh High Court, only one out of 16 judges has declared assets and Madras High Court lags with just 5 out of 65. The Delhi High Court has 7 of its 38 judges declaring their assets—a sharp fall from 2018, when 29 of 35 judges had made public their assets.

Interestingly, Delhi’s High Court archives list disclosures from 64 former judges—many of whom have either retired, been transferred, or elevated to the Supreme Court—some dating as far back as February 2010. But the current numbers paint a different picture.

Call for reform

Currently, out of 33 serving judges, 30—including the Chief Justice of India, Sanjiv Khanna—have submitted their asset declarations, as displayed on the official website. A recent Full Court meeting on April 1 marked a significant shift—all 33 Supreme Court judges agreed to make their assets public. Their declarations will be made visible once the technical modalities are sorted out.

Back in August 2023, a Parliamentary Standing Committee submitted a report titled ‘Judicial Processes and their Reform’, pushing for legislative changes. It called upon the government to mandate annual property declarations for all judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court.

“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.

The committee didn’t stop there. It pointed out that civil servants are already bound by rules requiring annual disclosures. Other constitutional authorities, like the Comptroller & Auditor General of India and the Council of Ministers, regularly upload asset details under their respective codes of ethics and conduct.

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