No proposal to bring law to make HC, SC judges file property returns, govt. tells Rajya Sabha

The pendency of cases across courts crossed 5 crore by November 21, with a rise of 9.22 lakh cases in the subordinate judiciary between January and November, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said.

Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on Thursday (November 28, 2024) informed the Rajya Sabha that the government had no plans to bring a law to mandate Supreme Court (SC) and High Court (HC) judges to furnish their property returns.

In another written submission to a separate question, the Minister informed that the subordinate and district courts have a shortage of more than 5,000 judges, while the 25 High Courts have collective vacancies of over 360. The Supreme Court, with a sanctioned strength of 34 judges, including the Chief Justice of India (CJI), has two vacancies after the retirements of Justice D. Y. Chandrachud as the CJI and Justice Hima Kohli.

The pendency of cases across courts has crossed 5 crore by November 21, with a rise of 9.22 lakh cases in the subordinate judiciary between January and November, the Minister informed.

On the declaration of assets by the judges of High Courts and the Supreme Court, Mr. Meghwal said that such details were not centrally maintained.

To a sub-question on “whether the government is contemplating to enact a law mandating judges of the higher judiciary to furnish their property returns as recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee in its report titled ‘Judicial Processes and their Reform’ of August, 2023,” the Minister replied in the negative.

However, the Minister said the ‘Restatement of Values of Judicial Life’, adopted by a “full court” meeting of the Supreme Court on May 7, 1997, laid down certain judicial standards to be followed by the Supreme Court and High Court judges. The full bench on August 26, 2009, decided to disclose the statement of assets submitted by the judges on the basis of a resolution to make it public by putting it on the Supreme Court website.

“Further, the full court, in its meeting dated September 8, 2009, resolved to put the declaration of assets on the Supreme Court website on or before October 31, 2009, and that is purely on a voluntary basis,” he said.

Replying to a question on pendency of cases, the Minister informed that the number of cases pending in district and subordinate courts went up by more than 9 lakh in the past 11 months. While more than 4.44 crore cases were pending in various lower courts as on January 1, the number went up to over 4.53 crore -- an increase of 9.22 lakh -- as on November 15, he said.

In another reply, the Law Minister told the Upper House that the subordinate and district judiciary was facing a shortage of 5,245 judicial officers.

Published - November 28, 2024 09:44 pm IST