Justice Yashwant Varma cash discovery row: SC judges to declare their asset details on court’s website

Supreme Court judges on Thursday resolved to make their asset details public and publish its details on the apex court’s website. The apex court’s move comes following a row over the alleged discovery of cash from Justice Yashwant Varma’s residence in Delhi in March.

The top court’s judges decided to make their asset details public to ensure transparency in a full court meeting. The details regarding the assets will be uploaded on the Supreme Court’s website. The declaration of assets is being done on a voluntary basis, the apex court said.

"The full court of the Supreme Court had resolved that judges should make a declaration of their assets on assuming office, and whenever any acquisition of a substantial nature is made, to the Chief Justice. This also includes declaration(s) by the Chief Justice of India. Placing the declaration of assets on the Supreme Court website will be on a voluntary basis," PTI reported quoting the statement on the website. As per reports, 30 judges including Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna have submitted their declarations of assets.

The declaration comes amid a huge row over the alleged discovery of cash at the residence of Justice Yashwant Varma while he was a judge at the Delhi High Court. The Supreme Court has ordered an in-house inquiry and constituted a three-judge panel for the probe. The collegium transferred  Justice Varma to his parent court, Allahabad High Court following the issue. However, Justice Varma has not been allotted any judicial work yet.

The Allahabad High Court Bar Association and various other bar associations had met CJI Khanna and demanded withdrawal of his transfer. Earlier, the probe report by Delhi High Court chief justice over the matter was made public and it was published on the Supreme Court’s website. In his statement, Justice Varma charged it was a conspiracy to malign his image.