Comments on: Assets of Supreme Court Judges

By: Satinath Choudhary

Satinath Choudhary — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:09:02 +0000

I am not very sure about the intent of CJI. However, the voluntary declaration should not preclude the legislation that was under consideration. If anything, it should make it easier on the part of the government to bring the said legislation because now it will not appear as an affront to the judiciary. Supreme Court judges have acceded to the call of time. As such others should not murmur when asked to declare their assets every year.

Taking advantage of the voluntary “asset declaration” decision, the government of India can and should now go ahead and make it mandatory for all government functionaries (“state functionaries”, in the words of Sukla jee!).

As for implementation of such a law, unless it is applied compulsorily and universally, it can simply become a tool for harassing relatively honest functionaries. This would require a number of other things: (1) All punishments should bear a degree of proportionality with the amount involved. (2) Size of the investigative departments has to be increased to cope with the increased load. (3) Some special steps will need to be taken for keeping the investigative departments honest. This may require oversight by some prominent individuals held in high esteem for their integrity. One should also think of replacing some of the key “individuals” at key positions by “collectives of equals” like they have three ECs;

I do not know if the government would like to go all the way.

By: Dr Mookhi Amir Ali

Dr Mookhi Amir Ali — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:13:33 +0000

True, the declaration of assets etc has come after considerable reluctance, for which, of course, the CJI had his own reasons. However, it is difficult to agree with Suklaji when he says that this step was taken to blunt the thrust of the legislative action. The CJI was never against such a legislation. In fact, he has been maintaining that the government passes a law so that the information on judges which, in any case, has been coming to the CJI since 1997, comes legitimately in the public domain.

By: Sukla

Sukla — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:55:10 +0000

The step is of course highly welcome.
But has come only after a great deal of fuss under sustained external pressure and is apparently meant to blunt the thrust of the legislative action underway.

And it must extend to all levels.
And, to all state functionaries.