For effective functioning of the democracy it is necessary that the working of three pillars of democracy Legislative, Executive and Judiciary should be transparent.
Legal experts and advocates in Ahmedabad have welcomed Supreme Court's decision to ask Judges to declare their assets. Describing it as a step in the right direction, they say, the move should have come much earlier to avoid needless controversy.
After months of intense debate over whether the assets of the higher judiciary should be made public, a decision in principle was taken on the issue at a meeting convened by the Chief Justice of India, KG Balakrishnan, on Wednesday.
According to senior advocate PR Agarwal, everyone is equal in the eyes of the Constitution. Moreover, for effective functioning of the democracy it is necessary that the working of three pillars of democracy Legislative, Executive and Judiciary should be transparent. He said cases of corruption in judiciary have been reported time and again. In fact, a particular judge in session court had more than three dozen complain against him.
"There is no problem in judges declaring their assets but it should not affect their work. Moreover, if judges declare their property it will bring more transparency within udiciary," said Sudhir Nanavati, a high court advocate.
Advocate Naina Bhatt who is a prosecutor in the Gulbarg society case said that judges too should declare their assets as people have the right to know about the property and assets of government official under the RTI Act. Bhatt also hailed the decision of the Apex court judges claiming that it will bring more transparency in judicial procedure.
However, another senior advocate RK Shah was of the opinion that declaring of assets by judges should be limited to only lower judiciary as judges in higher judiciary are basically honest and people should not doubt integrity of the judges. "Don't put judges at par with politicians as there is no law in any country which asks judges to declare their property," Shah further said.
Advocate Gulab Khan Pathan said that judges should have no problem in declaring their assets and property as judges receive their salaries in cheques.
Senior high court lawyer, Yatin Oza's opinion, however, differed who said that there is no logic behind declaration of property by judges as they are far more honest with fewer corruption cases against them as compared to other government officials and politicians. Oza also said that it is a populist measure to please people.
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