New Delhi: All judges of the Supreme Court have agreed that they will make the declaration of their assets publicly available, LiveLaw reported on Thursday (March 3). The move, aimed towards transparency and boosting public confidence in the judiciary, has been announced days after the recent incident of accidental cash discovery at the official residence of Justice Yashwant Varma, who was a Delhi high court judge.A full-court meeting was held on April 1, LiveLaw reported, in which the judges unanimously decided to disclose their assets to Chief Justice of India, Sanjiv Khanna. The specific modalities for publishing the asset declarations will be finalised in due course, the report added.Currently, judges of the Supreme Court have to submit their declaration of assets but the declarations are not made public.Justice Yashwant Varma caseA fire broke out on the intervening night of March 14 and 15 at the official Delhi residence of Justice Yashwant Varma leading to large sums of cash being accidentally found. A video had surfaced purportedly showing the cash. The information reached CJI Khanna.Justice Varma had initially denied that it belonged to him, alleging that it was “a conspiracy to frame and malign” him. He had urged the high court chief justice to “absolve me of these unfounded and baseless allegations”.The alleged discovery caused a huge row and also affected public confidence in judiciary. However, after rounds of discussions, Supreme Court collegium resolved to transfer him back to his parent high court in Allahabad.Separately, a three-member judicial committee has begun conducting an ‘in-house’ inquiry into the case.The Supreme Court has also made public the video showing the presence of currency in the gutted room.
