Srinagar, Sept 9: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court Judges led by the Chief Justice, Justice Aftab H Saikia have declared the assets possessed by them.
 Besides, The CJ eight other Justices including Justice Virender Singh, Justice Hakim Imtiyaz Hussain, Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir, Justice Jaipal Singh, Justice Muhammad Yaqoob Mir, Justice Sunil Hali, Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar and Justice Hasnain Massodi have brought into the public domain the information about their assets both movable and immovable, the details of which are available on the official website of the JK High Court.

 “The assets were declared under full court resolution passed recently. All the judges had volunteered to make public the information about their assets,” a senior court official told Greater Kashmir.

 The development comes after judges from many state High Courts including Delhi, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh had put the information about their assets in public domain. “Last year the Supreme Court had put the details of their judges’ assets on the website,” a High Court Official said.

 He said it all started in September last year when the Delhi Court in a landmark judgment, upheld a direction of the Central Information Commission to the Supreme Court to provide information to an RTI applicant as to whether the Apex Court judges were disclosing their assets to the CJI as mandated by a 1997 resolution.

 Later the Delhi High court had held that the office of the Chief Justice of India comes within the purview of the Right to Information Act and details of Judges’ assets should be revealed under the legislation.

 The information provided about the assets include the land possessed by the judges, bank deposits, investment in shares and other non-banking financial institutions, number of vehicles, jewellery, residential houses, household items and hard cash (in some cases). 

 There are 14 sanctioned posts of judges including the Chief Justice in Jammu and Kashmir High Court. Out of 14, eight posts are for permanent judges and six for additional judges. Presently the High Court has nine judges including the Chief Justice. Out of these nine judges, eight including the Chief Justice are working on permanent posts and one judge is working as additional judge.
 Earlier the Court had received an application under Right to Information Act seeking details whether the judges had declared their assets.

 Responding to the application the Registrar General had reportedly said the information would be soon made available on the website.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 9 Sep 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 9 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 10 Sep 2010 00:00:00 IST