Karnataka High Court Judge D V Shylendra Kumar, who stirred a hornet's nest by differing with the views of Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan on disclosure of assets by judges of superior courts, has filed a statement on his assets and liabilities.
Justice Kumar sent the statement to Registrar General of the High Court on Monday with a comment that it can also be made public, High Court sources said on Tuesday. Justice Shylendra Kumar, in an article published in a newspaper, said the Chief Justice of India has no authority to speak for all judges of the superior courts and his views are not necessarily the representation of the views of all the judges on the issue of disclosure of assets. He said it was a misnomer that the judges of the superior courts are not ready to disclose their assets.
Amid a nationwide debate on declaration of assets by judges, Justice K Kannan of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has voluntarily made public a list of his assets and advocated setting up of an in-house mechanism within the judiciary to regulate its conduct. In the midst of these developments, Justice Balakrishnan said on Monday that a consensus was being reached on disclosure of assets by Supreme Court judges to the Chief Justice of India. "...every High Court judge has got the freedom to declare assets. No problem on this." Justice Balakrishnan had said.
