Disclosing assets will hurt judges’ independence: SC

The Supreme Court on Monday defended its judges against disclosure of personal information under the Right to Information Act, saying the act could affect the judiciary’s independence.

“If we introduce transparency to an extent that will disturb working of the judge, it will affect the independence of the judicial system,” solicitor-general Goolam E Vahanvati argued while appearing before the Delhi high court on behalf of the SC registry.

The SC challenged the Central Information Commission’s order of January 6 asking the apex court to reveal information on assets declared by its judges to the chief justice of India (CJI).

Vahanvati said the information could not be disclosed as the CJI (currently, KG Balakrishnan) isn’t a controlling authority but has only holding authority on the information. “All information held by a public authority can’t be disclosed under the transparency law and only (that) information, on which the authority has controlling power, can be revealed by him,” he said.

“(The public authority) should not only hold information but control the information, which means that he can call for such information. In case of judges declaring their assets to the CJI, it is non-statutory and non-binding and the CJI does not have control over it,” he said.

In a recent TV interview, former CJI JS Verma said, “People are talking why judges are not declaring their assets. It is disturbing me. Most of them have nothing to hide. There may be a few.”

Verma said many judges of the SC and the Delhi HC had told him they wanted to declare their assets. “My advice to them has been to go ahead and make your statement public,” he said.

“Every judge has to decide for himself. He is not subordinate to the CJI. I didn’t consider myself subordinate when I was not the CJI and I did not consider myself the boss when I was CJI.